Roads of Yesterday
by TooCreative4Life
Summary: Nightwing is missing, captured by some of the baddest baddies around. No one knows why or how to get him back, but they'll sure as heck try. Not much can stand between a hurt Nightwing and the Team combined with the League. Rated M for some violence & not so pretty stuff later in. Dick & Barbara, Wally & Zatanna, Roy & Artemis Dibbs Flashspell Longshot
1. Road to Travel

Roads of Yesterday

Nightwing sat at the monitor in the heart of Mount Justice, his eyes glued to the screen as he typed furiously. A strained pause came to pass as the computer scanned for Nightwing's current target. The silence was broken by a loud ping from the computer, honing in on a warehouse complex in the middle of nowhere between Gotham and Star City. Nightwing reached for the com that hung on his belt before pausing

"Do I really want to drag the team down there when I'm not sure if they're even there?" Nightwing asked himself.

He'd been second guessing himself a lot lately. He didn't trust himself as much anymore, not since he'd messed up and gotten Wally and Kaldur nearly killed several months ago. Nightwing sighed as he stood and walked to his room. He'd just grab a few things and go check out the warehouse. Nothing more. He was just going to make sure that this wasn't a false lead and make sure he knew everything before calling in the team. After checking that his utility belt was well-stocked he headed to where he kept his bike. He put on his helmet and revving the engine he set off.

He drove down the roads at break neck speed, almost flying down the pavement. He passed through Central City, wincing when he saw Wally's house. He hadn't yet gotten the courage up to speak directly and alone with his friend since that mission, the memories of the fear and panic that had gripped him when he'd thought Wally dead still slashing fresh in his mind now and again. His thoughts blurred back to the night when he'd given the order to move in, the tense minutes when he was fighting for his life and then the feeling of being blasted backwards; flying through the air on a hot wave. Nightwing's mind jolted back to reality as he felt the bike beneath him begin to fall. He quickly managed to right the bike and avoid a head on collision with the asphalt beneath him.

"Stay focused Nightwing. Stay focused." He growled to himself as he continued on.

For some hours he drove along a winding stretch of road, the landscape flashing by him slowly growing into more of a countryside, soon turning to a desert like wasteland. The sun flew across the sky as Nightwing sped down the road. When the golden light of the sun began to turn a deep red-orang and sink behind the hills the monitor on his bike began to blink as he neared the warehouse complex. The dusty roads of the countryside led to a spread out yard circled by electrified, barbed wire fence. Nightwing stepped off the bike, laying it in a patch of desert bushes to conceal it. Silent as the desert wind Nightwing turned towards the fence, eyeing it with dangerous determination. A deep breath and he was off flying towards the 12' fence. He leapt off the ground, pulling his legs towards his chest and flipping over it easily. A small swirl of dust erupted at his feet when he landed soundless as the night on the other side. In an instant Nightwing was flying for the cover of a large pile of boxes. He stopped and listened, listened for any signs of life or movement in the warehouses near him. He opened up the holo-screen on his wrist guard and checked which warehouse was said to be housing the newest lair of a new super-villain group naming themselves the Corps of Unjustice.

He closed the screen as he got to his feet. He listened a few seconds more before peering cautiously around the corner of the boxes. Neither hearing nor seeing any indications of another beings presence Nightwing set off through the maze of warehouses. He flew through the silent dead land like a shadow over the ground and silent as the moon through the night. When Nightwing found the warehouse he suspected held the newest headquarters the sun had almost entirely sunk behind the distant hills. He found another pile of boxes beside a warehouse and decided to get a vantage point as he listened. He leapt up the stacks and finished lightly on the metallic roof of the warehouse opposite the suspect. He closed his eyes and let his normal hearing expand, listening to the sounds within the warehouse; trying to find hints of people yelling or talking or large things moving. He had no super hearing, but with focus he could have better than average. With sounds of occupancy nonexistent Nightwing opted for a closer look. He stood from his crouched perch and backed up some feet away from the edge of the roof before sprinting down the metallic surface. He pushed off the very edge of the roof to leap the seventeen foot gap between warehouses. A gentle thud was all his practiced landing created. Still he heard no noise as he stopped to listen. The black suited superhero walked down the roof and to the edge, attaching a grapple claw to a metal thatch before lowering down in front of a dusty, murky window. He attempted to peer inside, but saw no lights, no movement, no sign of any kind of occupancy at all.

"I was right to come check this out before calling in everyone. It's just another dead lead." Nightwing grumbled to himself as he climbed back up the rope.

As he shimmied quietly up the rope, Nightwing heard something on the roof. He paused to listen but it stopped before he could, so he dismissed it as a bird landing or a stray something gone flying. Nightwing reached a hand over the top of the roof to haul himself up. He managed to get his other arm over the edge of the roof and haul himself halfway up before a hard blow to his jaw sent him flying from the roof. Quick reflexes and his stunning ability in acrobatics allowed Nightwing to make a last second save and tuck into a roll as he hit the dusty ground. He snapped his head up to see Poison Ivy standing on the roof. Her dark red hair glowed eerily in the light of the setting sun. Just as Nightwing stood she vaulted down from the roof. She landed next to him and smirked.

"Who would have thought that I got the pleasure of taking out Boy Wonder himself by sticking around on guard duty." Ivy said as she looked at Nightwing with a gleeful smile.

"A chance to get you butt kicked you mean." Nightwing snarled as he launched himself at Ivy, eskrima sticks in his fists.

A cloud of dust quickly arose around the two as flurries of kicks and punches were dished out from either side. A lucky quick jab into the ribs by Nightwing with his eskrima sticks had Poison Ivy stumbling backwards a few steps. Nightwing leapt away,flipping to keep an eye on Ivy and get farther away. He stood poised ready to block attacks as he tried to catch his breath. He reached a hand back to press a locator activation button on his belt, but a sudden movement from Ivy gave him no chance. She darted forward, followed by a string of plants that had surged out of nowhere. Nightwing was thrown on the defensive as he parried attacks from Poinson Ivy's monstrous plants. He quickly found that the attacking aid of Ivy was throned, though not poisonous, yet it could easily slice him to ribbons should he get entangled within it's iron-like tendrils. He managed to hold off the vines for a little before his sticks were smashed to rubble. Nightwing as a result had to fend off the attacking flora with only his hands. He was able to maneuver his way out of the constricting mass of seething vines. Several lacerations dribbled red onto the dusty floor as Nightwing glared at Ivy before continuing to block attacks from the vines. Nightwing vaulted several yards away. During his brief respite he glared at Ivy. He was launched into action once more as an even larger wave of vines came his way. Ivy stood smirking as she watched him fight in vain.

"You should give up little bird, you're not going to win on your own. My babies are too strong." Ivy said to Nightwing as she walked a few steps forward.

Nightwing's breath was getting faster and more labored as he fought, the sun nearly sunk behind the hills in it's entirety. The plants kept attacking with relentless force, tearing at his skin and suit with their thorns and attemptingHe knew he was starting to tire when he leapt up to do a flipping retreat and he nearly crashed on his face, but managed to finish the move and landed on his feet. A sudden blow knocked Nightwing forward. He turned halfway to see Black Spider standing behind him. The villain didn't hesitate as he sprung forward, aiming a blow at Nightwing's head. The hero managed to catch the blow on his scratched up forearm, but didn't anticipate Black Spider's web shooter join off and covering his face. Nightwing kicked Spider hard in the gut and stumbled backwards to rip off the sticky mess that had exploded in his face. Unfortunately neither Poison Ivy nor Black Spider wanted to give him that chance. Spider rushed at the hero whilst Ivy sent her babies at Nightwing as well. The black-clad hero was successful in fending off both opponents blind for a short while before being over powered. A sharp, heavy blow thudded against the base of Nightwing's skull, causing the black-garbed hero to fall unconscious. Thorned vines coiled themselves tightly around Nightwing whilst Black Spider encased the hero in a cocoon of webbing to keep the hero subdued until he was properly contained.

"Should we alert the others?" Black Spider asked Ivy, a hint of a malicious hiss in his voice.

"I think now would be a good time, yes. Bring the old Boy Wonder inside and call the others. Make sure to double lock the cell and turn on all the security measures." Ivy reminded the villain as he picked up the limp cocoon of Nightwing.

The black bug man made his way into the dark warehouse with Nightwing's cocooned body slung over his shoulder. Ivy watched the villain with scrutinizing eyes and a cautionning glare. She distrusted just about every member of the organization except for Joker and she wasn't afraid to show it. She took a final glance at the sky before retreating into the warehouse after Black Spider to make sure he was doing as told and then to call up Joker and the other heads to tell them that she and the Spider had just caught Nightwing in their little web.

"Joker will be so pleased." Ivy said to herself as she locked the door to the darkening warehouse behind her.

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Author's Note

Please review people or tell me that you want more. I want to know that there are other people but me reading this. 5 reviews and I'll post the next chapter


	2. Road to Nowhere

Shrill beeps filled the air in a small cozy room as a low groan came from a mass of sheets. Red hair poked from beneath a sun bathed pillow. Wally lifted his head and glared at the offending machine that read 6:45 AM. He moaned as he began to untangle himself from his bed sheets. He was moving rather slowly for a speedster, though rather normally for a fresh-out-of-bed-teenage-speedster-without-food-for-wight-hours-straight speedster which is to say like a normal human being. He slammed his hand down on the snooze button with a seeming grudge. Wally then proceeded to glare at the window with blinds drawn.

"Why do I have to wake up so early? It's summer! I should be sleeping long days and working nights." Wally grumbled as he moved to the shower.

A quick rinse and towel dry later Wally was ready to go the Cave. He wore the usual black long sleeve shirt and his dark blue jeans. He was downstairs raiding the fridge in seconds. His red goggles sat on top of his messy red mass of hair as he chewed and closed the fridge door. His aunt Iris and uncle Barry weren't up yet, so he quietly ate a few bowls of cereal and left them a note on the counter. Wally snuck quietly to the door and opened it slowly.

"So close," groaned the flaming haired teen as the door let out a harsh squeak.

In seconds Barry was standing behind Wally in his night wear holding a bat and seemingly ready to beat down a burglar. Wally waved nervously to his newly awakened uncle. The older speedster gave Wally a short glare before curling his hand into a thumbs up and a smile curling on his lips. Wally grinned ecstatically. He put on his goggles and stepped out the door. Wally stopped to take a deep breath of the early morning air before waving to Barry and taking off, speeding down the streets of Central City. He was a barely a blur as he rocketed through the city. He loved the wind whipping at his face as he ran, almost as much as he loved the speed itself.

It took a total of twenty minutes for the speedster to reach Happy Harbor and from there, seconds for him to reach the cave. He sped in as usual, skidding to a halt before he slammed into Artemis and Rocket. The archer gave Wally her typical good-morning-now-scram-before-I-get-mad look before returning to her conversation with Rocket. Wally sighed as he headed towards the kitchen. There he found M'Gann trying to make another batch of cookies.

"Hi." Wally said to her as he walked to the fridge.

"Hello Wally. Would you happen to know how many ounces are in a pound? Or is it the other way?" M'Gann asked as she looked up from her cookbook.

"You had it right the first time." Wally chuckled good-naturedly before continuing, "I'm not sure how many ounces are in a pound though. Try asking Artemis or Nightwing."

"Do you know where he is?" The martian asked.

"No. Isn't he here? I thought he practically lived here with you and Supey." Wally said as he nearly dropped his bag of chips.

"No one's seen him since yesterday after the mission debriefing Baywatch." Artemis said, an eyebrow raised beneath her mask in question as she entered the kitchen. "He probably was dragged home by Batman. He doesn't like it when Nightwing stays too long at the cave."

"Guess it comes from being a father, but still. Wouldn't he have let us know?" Wally said, mostly to himself.

Before anyone could answer they all heard Batman's deep booming voice resonate in the cave.

"All Team members, report to mission room." The Dark Knights voice rang loud and clear.

Wally, M'Gann and Artemis shared a look, each showing some versions of worry. They all proceeded to sit the kitchen and walk through the cave towards the mission room. Every hero in the cave dropped whatever they were doing and joined their small procession. When all heroes had assembled there were a total of ten Team members standing in the room. M'Gann was of course standing next to Beast Boy, who looked too excited to be humanly possible as he bounced in his seat; Kaldur was standing stoically beside Conner who was wearing a mask of indifference as he looked at the other heroes in the room. Artemis was begrudgingly standing beside Wally as the newer recruits took the spots in front row.

"The League has received news of an attack in Spring Field whilst we suspect a theft to be planned in New York, utilizing the New Orleans incident as a distraction. The theft is thought to be of a caravan of highly valuable new wave technology. The League will handle Springfield. The Team will handle prevevnting the theft." Batman paused to scan the group of heroes in front of him. A puzzled scowl deepened the furrow of his brows before the Dark Knight said, "Kaldur, you will be in charge. Take who you wish but leave quickly." Batman said as he turned on his heel, cape whirling around in a black mass, and strode out of the room.

Kaldur walked to the front, his steps confident as he re-assumed the role that he had held some time ago. He looked over the heroes before him, eyes lingering on each member thinking over who to bring and who would be valuable.

"Kid Flash, Miss Martian, Artemis, Blue Beetle, Superboy, Bumblebee, Rocket. You will all come with me. Wonder Girl, make sure that Beast Boy stays here." Kaldur said as he looked at the young green changeling.

Garfield let out a saddened whimper of protest before changing into a puppy and trying to persuade Kaldur to let him come. But after some minutes of arguing, the boy agreed to stay behind. All members vanished to their rooms to switch from their civilian garb into hero suits. The chosen team reunited in the kitchen before making its way to the launch bay where the bio-ship awaited them. They boarded in peaceful silence. M'Gann took her seat in the pilots chair before Batmanpopped up on the holoscreen.

"Team, here are the coordinates for the caravan in question and it's route to intended destination. Primary mission is to assure the caravan arrives at its destination, secondary mission is to find out who is behind the theft. Batman out." And with that the holoscreen disappeared and the Team was left looking at blank space.

"Miss Martian, take us to the coordinates." Kaldur said, his voice the usual calm it always was.

M'Gann nodded. The bio-ship lifted off of the ground as the doors to the landing bay opened wide enough for the ship to clear it. While M'Gann focused on flying the ship and Kaldur on the mission ahead the others began to chat quietly.

"What do you think is up? Bats didn't even seem to know that Nightwing wasn't there." Wally whispered.

"You mean when he took a breath to continue speaking? Not everyone can speed talk like you Baywatch. Normal people have to breathe." Artemis snorted in a hushed tone.

"Not Batman and not when he's assigning missions." The red-head protested.

"Kid does have a point. That wasn't exactly a normal behavior. Plus, didn't you see how he walked out of the room with a different step than normal?" Superboy interjected.

"Thank you someone else for noticing!" Wally exclaimed, louder than he had meant to, drawing the attention of Aqualad.

"For noticing what, Kid Flash?" The atlantian questioned.

"Kid Idiot is saying that Batman didn't know Nightwing wasn't at the cave and that he thinks that Nightwing is thus missing." Rocket spouted.

Wally was forming a protest as he opened his mouth to reexplain what he'd said to keep himself from looking stupid, but the speedster was cut off.

"I believe that Kid Flash is correct in his assumptions about Batman being unaware of Nightwing's location."

Kid Flash's jaw dropped in surprise at Kaldur agreeing with him.

"Really? You agree with me. I mean- Yeah, see. He agrees with me."

"Since when is Kid Idiot right about anything?" Artemis asked.

"I've been right about stuff before!" The red-head protested.

"When?" The other heroes, excluding Aqualad, asked in unison.

"When it comes to food and speed and science." Kid Flash responded.

"Let us put this debate aside for the moment. We need to decide on a plan. Primarily we are going to be accompanying the shipment, so we will need to be in groups and spread around it. I will take Rocket and we will be in front of the caravan. Superboy and Kid, you will take the left flank, while Artemis and Miss Martian will be positioned on the right flank. Bumblebee and Blue Beetle, you will watch the skies from the back of the caravan. Does everyone remember their positions?"

All the team nodded looking at their partners with agreeing nods. Artemis and Kid Flash were more than happy when they had not been paired together and were quietly celebrating before Kaldur threatened to switch partners and put them as a pair. That made both heroes shut their mouths tight and turn to face the front of the ship. Hushed laughter and snorts came from their teammates as the two teens tried to ignore the other and sit quietly. Luckily for them they didn't have to wait long since the group was quite near to the current location of the caravan.

The bio-ship landed easily and the heroes stood. Bumblebee settled into the pilots seat as the others began to file out of the bio-ship. Superboy and Kid didn't need one, leaping-buildings-in-a-single-bound ability and super speed were enough. Miss Martian and Artemis were fine with telekinesis aided flying and since Blue Beetle and Bumblebee were using the bio-ship only Aqualad and Rocket needed an alternative mode of transport. Sphere had been happy to offer her help.

The teams took their places down the four truck long caravan and prepared to depart. Sphere roared to life as she began to drive down the highway. After the second truck drove off the flank teams started up and began their way down the road. Bumblebee lifted the bio-ship into the air following the departure of the last truck. Miss Martian established a mental link between all the teams.

_How long till we reach final destination? _Beetle asked.

_A little over three hours Beetle_. Came the deep voice of Aqualad in answer.

A communal groan of protest echoed through everyone's head from everyone, though loudest from Wally.

_What's up with you Baywatch? Thought you'd like this long run more than anyone._ Artemis asked with her trademark snark.

_Huh? Nothing's up. I'm just kind of wanting to get back to the cave and see if Nightwing's back._

_Can Kid Mouth not get by without his buddy at his back? _Artemis asked jokingly.

_Hey, when you make a friend who becomes your partner and with whom you work contantly and then you don't have him around, you have this feeling like something's missing._ Kid snapped at Artemis.

_Okay, sore subject._ Beetle thought, not meaning for it to be shared with everyone.

_Beetle, mind link._ Bumblebee thought in a whispered tone.

_Dang, sorry. _Blue Beetle said hastily.

Wally sent a near perfect bat-glare over his shoulder at the bio-ship, silently thanking his best friend for teaching him how to do that over the years. A chuckle came from the red-headed speedster as he saw Beetle scramble back from the bio-ship's windshield.

_Don't get mad at him just because he's right._ Rocket chided Kid.

The speedster let out an annoyed huff as he resisted the urge to speed ahead just to get away from the others. His annoyance, near anger, must have traveled through the mind link because he felt the mind link retreat from him as he was left with blessed silence to brood in peace. Wally's thoughts drifted from his annoying teammates to the absent member. Wally was quite unbalanced by the lack of their usual leader, though found himself almost laughing when he thought of how he would have paired the speedster with Artemis.

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_**Author's**_** Note:** 5 reviews on this chapter and I post the next one. Hurry up and write!


	3. Roads to Darkness

_**Author's Note**: I'll be taking some liberties with this chapter, adding in some background to Nightwing (don't worry, it's not going to alter anything between him and Batman, just give me some room to make this story all tht much more fun to read and write) and creating a couple of my own villains because, to be honest, I can't think of any good ones that I'd want in my Injustice group here. Luma and Felina are mine, don't steal them!_

_So, same as before I have a number of reviews before I post next chapter. This time it's going up a little bit. 10 reviews people, with some constructive criticism as well as your opinion of something. Would you guys like me put in some side relationship stuff like Super/Martian, Kaldur/Rocket, Artemis/Roy? Or who you'd like to see with who. I want to know some stuff you'd like to see in here too._

* * *

Dick groaned loudly, a pounding at the base of his skull telling him that he had a nasty bruise. He was raising a hand to prod the complaining area of his neck to find his hands cuffed behind him. In an instant Dick's eyes were wide open. A sharp hiss of pain came from the black garbed hero as he quickly shut his eyes, the room around him blindingly bright. He opened his eyes slower, allowing them time to adjust to the brightness. Any traces of grogginess gone from Nightwing's mind as he quickly looked around, seeing a relatively small white room with glaring lights. The crystal blue eyes hidden behind the domino mask were wide with suppressed fear and apprehension as he was thrown back into his memories.

_His parents had died only two days earlier and the young ebony-haired boy had been staying with a social worker to keep an eye on his mental state. Watching his parents die had caused the young Richard Grayson to shut away, crying all the time and refusing to talk. Finally he had stopped crying and decide to talk, but he still sniffled a lot. _

_The boy sat just outside the social workers office, clinging to a stuffed bear wearing a miniature uniform that he and his parents had sported when performing. The boy's blue eyes tore away from his bear as he heard the door to the office open. Out stepped a woman in a pencil skirt, heels and suit coat followed by a man and woman. _

_The heel wearing woman kneeled next to young Dick. She placed a warm hand on the young quivering boy's knee. Dick looked into the woman's warm brown eyes. The child had had a good feeling about this person, something inside of him just said that she was trust-worthy, but when Dick turned his aqua gaze to the pair behind her something in his stomach just twisted and dropped._

_"Richard," the young boy turned his blue eyes back to the kneeling woman, "these people are going to take you into their family. They're going to be your foster parents." The social worker said kindly._

_"I don't want to go with them. I want to stay with you." Dick had said as he threw his arms around the woman._

_"You have to go with them, at least for now." The woman had said as she pulled Dick off from around her neck and held his arms to his side._

_Dick looked at the woman, tears filling his eyes as he nodded. A warm smile came to the social worker's face as she stood up, holding a hand out to Dick. The young boy took her hand and hopped out of his chair, free head not really free as it clutched the Grayson-bear to Dick's chest. Blue eyes began to spout tears as Dick smelt his mother on his bear and imagined her saying, "Spread your wings my little robin and take the next step, I'll always be here to catch you."_

With a sharp jerk of his head Nightwing drew himself out to the memories, though not before beginnings of tears had taken root in the corners of his hidden eyes. He forced a scowl on his face as he fought to regain control over his emotions.

"Keep it together, Dick." He chided himself as he fought against tears. "Keep your head and find out where you are before you go crazy."

Nightwing lifted his head and gazed around. The room was surprisingly white an bare. There were the glaring lights and some minuscule vents. Nightwing looked down to see that his belt was indeed gone. _They're learning. That's not good. _Nightwing thought as he pursed his lips to being formulating a plan.

"Batman's going to wring my neck after this." Nightwing mumbled to himself as he managed to press a hidden button on his glove, activating his index finger lock pick.

He set to work picking the cuff lock on his left hand while quietly murmuring to himself about how stupid he was for going in on his own. A soft growl burst forth from Nightwing as he struggled to unlock the lock. The black garbed hero pulled violently at the cuffs and let out a coarse word before calming. A relaxing breath and Nightwing went back to work on the lock, focusing as much as he could without detracting his focus from paying attention to his surroundings. After a few minutes the cuff on Nightwing's right wrist clanked against the floor. A happy grin spread on hero's face as he brought his arms around to the front and set to work on the left cuff. In half the time it had taken the escape master to pick the first lock, he had picked the second. Nightwing rubbed his wrists before standing. He looked around the blank room, a sorrowed look on his face.

"Is it sad that this looks almost like my room at the Hurns?" Dick asked himself, answering with a small chuckle, "Yeah, I'd say it is. It really is sad, for both now and then."

Nightwing rambled on to himself as he walked to a corner. He sat with his back touching both walls just before they met. Nightwing leaned his head back to rest it on the corner. Hidden blue eyes drifted into a haze as he floated into more memories brought up in the white, solitary room before slipping into a light, fitful sleep.

* * *

"I spy with my little eye-" Beetle began.  
"A tree." Bumblebee cut in, rolling her eyes.  
"Really Bumblebee? Do you have to be a kill joy?" Beetle complained  
"Why are we playing this game Beetle? It's a waste of time and we've spent the last forty minutes playing it, after we played like twenty rounds of twenty-questions, which we played after spending an hour or two playing the sign game. I've just 'bout had it with you're travel games, they're useless and annoying." Bumblebee complained.  
"That's the entire point! We need something to do-" A sharp beep interrupted Beetle.  
"Guess you got your wish Blue." Bumblebee said with a nervous chuckle as she watched her partner looking over the screens. "What's makin' the noise?"  
"I don't know, I think the sensors picked up something flying behind us." Beetle answered, fingers flying over the screens.  
_Guys, we picked up something on the scanners, possibly a hostile. _Bumblebee called to the others

Kid Flash turned his head over his shoulder to look at the sky behind him. He quickly spotted the black dot not far behind them.

_Bumblebee's right. There's a ship behind us._ Kid said.

_Team, choose which member of your squad will remain with the caravan and which one will fight should the ship prove hostile._ Aqualad instructed.

Kid looked at Superboy who was leaping beside him. The two had a silent battle of wills as they locked eyes. A gruff snort from Kid caused Superboy to let out one of his deep laughs.

_Rub it in Supey, rub it in  
__Gladly._ Superboy chuckled mentally in answer.  
_Are we all decided?_Aqualad asked.

Answers of agreement rang from all pairs.

_Good, because our company is __defiantly here for a party!_ Beetle said as the black ship swooped over the caravan.  
_Teams, split now. All chosen members gather on top of truck three. _

The atlantian's command rang loud and clear as the teams split. Kid watched Superboy leap from the road beside him to the roof. Beetle dropped out of the bio-ship, sonic cannon ready. He landed on the top of the designated truck. Artemis vaulted on to the truck, landing lightly with her bow already in hand. All the heroes now had their eyes on the black ship above them. The four on top of the truck sank into defensive postures as a hatch opened on the underside of the black aircraft. A cable dropped slowly from the hatch, a familiar pair of violet trousers coming with it. Two, three, four more cables began to descend, bringing with them Count Vertigo, Hook and two new villains. One seemed to radiate light, her white suit gleaming near blindingly in the sunlight, whilst the other looked like a simple cat burglar type, black suit with no particular gadgets. The two new woman looked overly happy as they saw the young heroes on the roof.

"Oh look pals, the League didn't forget about us after all. They left us a welcoming comity." Joker laughed as he stepped off his cable onto the second truck.  
"We get to have some fun then. Good, I was worried that we got the worst deal." The glowing woman said with an air of snobishness.  
"No, the worst post would be what Spider and Ivy got; guard duty." Hook snorted with mocking in his tone.  
"Quiet, we wouldn't want our friends here getting any ideas." The black suited woman hissedat the two, something lashing the air behind her.  
"Take the drama down a notch Felina." The glowing girl said.  
"Why don't you Luma? Oh, right cause you're the little evil princess stepping out from her father's shadow and making her own light." Felina snarled, claw-like nails errupting from her fingertips.

Luma's response was her suit beginning to glow brighter, glaring threateningly at the feline crook. Artemis, who was standing behind her teammates let out a hushed snicker.

"Looks like they're going to do our job for us."

The two vilenesses turned their hateful glares upon the young heroes, who they'd apparently forgotten were there. A resounding clap came from Joker as he stepped forward, standing between both parties.

"Now that we are all focused, let us proceed to the fun question. Are we going to do this the boring way or the fun way?" Joker asked the team of heroes.  
_Who want's to be that Joker's "_fun_" way is us getting our sses handed to us by his little group? _Beetle asked as he looked at the baddies.  
_Because it's Joker. And we will not, as you say Beetle, "get our sses hand to us". We will be putting them in Belle Reve, where they belong. _Aqualad's reassuring voice came to everyone.  
"Which do you think, Chuckle-head?" Superboy growled, his fists balling at his sides.  
"Goodie, the fun way it is. Chaps, let's get to it." Joker said as he drew a long knife from his belt.

The villains gathered behind the smiling sadistic maniac now sported grins that were all too similar to the one that Joker wore constantly.

"_Oh crud._" Artemis said out loud and through the mental link.


	4. Roads Collide

The villains sprung into action. Hook charged Aqualad, metal appendage raised. Superboy squared off against Joker, who was cackling evilly as he taunted the kryptonian clone. Artemis was attacked by both Felina and Luma, who were fighting each other as much as they were the archer. Beetle was fighting Vertigo, though to Kid who was running beside the trucks it looked more like trying to avoid getting vertigoed out of the sky.

_Anyone want some back-up help up there? _Kid asked with a bit of a hopeful note in his voice.  
_Now is not the time Kid Idiot, trying to keep our skins. _Artemis growled, catching a heavy blow from Felina on her bow.  
_So is that a yes?_ Kid asked.  
_Yes, back up teams join us on the truck. Bumblebee, stay in the bio-ship and open up for Sphere to come in. _Aqualad ordered as he used his water-bearers to knock Hook off his feet.  
_Why do I have to stay in here?_ Bumblebee complained.  
_Because we need someone with bio-ship experience at the wheel and ready should we need our asses saved. Take it as a compliment and leave it at that. _Beetle told Bumblebee as he fired his cannon at Vertigo.

An annoyed sigh escaped Bumblebee as she rolled her eyes. She sat back in the pilot's chair and watched her teammates fight. Kid joined Superboy in his fight against Joker, who was being just as annoying and tricky as always with his fake guns and real ones inter-mixed and his differing smoke bombs. Miss M had joined Beetle in the sky, creating two targets for Vertigo to hit and making it easier for Beetle to shoot the villain. Unfortunately, Vertigo's mind waves manged to affect the martian after a direct hit and the heroine began to fall the asphalt. Beetle intervened, grabbing her, only to be hit by Vertigo in turn. Both heroes landed on the hard ground that was rolling farther behind the trucks.

_Bumblebee, get Beetle and Miss Martian. _Aqualad ordered.

The still fighting heroes saw the bio-ship fall back and do a U-turn to go pick up their fallen teammates. Vertigo joined his teammates in assaulting the heroes, firing at the heroes randomly before settling on attacking Artemis. His and Luma's attacks kept the archer busy so that she didn't notice when Felina slipped away from the fight. The cat villainess stalked quietly and unnoticeably to the back of the truck and leapt the fourteen foot gap between trucks with ease. Kid looked away from his fight with Joker to see the villainess slip into the driver's seat, pushing the old driver aside.

"Supey, can you handle this alone?" Kid asked.

The clone didn't answer as he let a furious punch hit Joker in the gut. Kid nodded to himself before tearing off and leaping the gap, barely managing to grab the edge of the driver compartment roof. The speedster dropped to the passenger side and began to open the door, sliding inside the truck.

As Joker dropped to the ground from Superboy's punch, an odd cackle rang out from his pocket. Joker's eyebrows raised as he put his hand into his pocket. Superboy was about to bring down his boot on Joker before the slippery crook twisted to the side and flipped open the phone he'd removed.

"I'm a little busy at work honey, make it quick." Joker said with a cheery tone as he held the phone on speaker, a blade protruding from the end as he used it to slash at Superboy along with his other, bigger, knife.  
"Turns out guard duty was more fun then we thought. Spider and I just caught the bat's old little bird, Boy Wonder extraordinare, Nightwing." Ivy's melodious voice sounded through the phone.  
"Oh? What a treat. We're just about done here, deary. Sweet Felina is doing a bang-up job. I'll phone when I'm home." Joker cackled into the phone before hanging up.

Superboy had halted his attacks when he heard what Ivy had said over the phone, his mind processing what he'd heard. When the Joker put the phone safely in his pocket Superboy just stared at him. Joker began to step away, towards the back of the truck.

"Sorry, kiddies. Daddy, has playdate he can't miss. Thank you for the new toys." Joker laughed as he stepped onto his cable and began rising from the truck.

Artemis managed to pull away from Vertigo and Luma long enough to loose a volley of arrows at Joker, but none of them hit their mark since she was blasted by Luma right before losing them. The Team was hard pressed to keep the other villains from climbing aboard their cables and rising up, despite Superboy's attempts to get a hold on the cables and toss the villains down. Superboy landed with a hard thud on the truck, denting the roof with his unconscious kryptonian body. The team watched the ship carrying the villains fall back, glaring at it as it did. Aqualad and Rocket watched as the large ship was followed by the third caravan truck. The bio-ship was fast approaching, Bumblebee determined at the command.

"Should I intercept?" She asked through the com link.  
"Negative, Bumblebee." Just rejoin us here, with so many members unconscious we cannot risk injuring ourselves more. Aqualad answered, pain showing through his voice as he gripped his bleeding side.  
"Roger." Bumblebee said as she continued straight for the caravan.  
"Aqualad, where's Kid?" Rocket asked as she looked at the unconcious forms of her teammates.

The atlantian leader spun around, grunting in pain, and searched for the red-headed member of the team.

"Bumblebee, did you pick up Kid Flash on the road anywhere?" Aqualad asked.  
"That would be a negative. I didn't see him." Bumblebee answered.

A string of atlantian curses flew from Aqualad as he glared at the black ship growing smaller and smaller on the horizon.

"They have him." Aqualad snarled as he clenched his fists.  
"Not only Kid Flash, they have Nightwing too." Superboy groaned as he sat up from his dent in the roof.  
"What? How? When did you learn this?" Aqualad asked as he walked over to the clone.  
"When Joker was fighting he got a call and the person said that they had just caught Nightwing." Superboy said as he pushed himself to his feet, standing taller than Aqualad, even in the metal ditch.

The atlantian groaned as he cast a long glance at the disappearing ship. He brought a hand to his head and pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. The dark skinned boy let out a heavy sigh before he looked up again at his team.

"Batman will not be pleased."

* * *

_Nightwing crouched behind a building, heading peering out as he quickly looked at their target, the old Cadmus building where the Team had first formed. The League had received information that a bomb had been placed inside and civilians had been trapped with it. Kaldur and Kid Flash had gone around to the other side while Superboy was with Nightwing. The moon had completely risen and was casting it's light on everything. Nightwing looked back at his partner, hand going to his ear to switch on the com link._

_"You guys in place?"_  
_"Roger Nightwing. We're ready over here." Kid answered._

_Nightwing looked at the building again before steeling himself and giving the order to move in. He and Superboy made their way over to the newly rebuilt structure using the shadows. The clone had become much more adept at hiding in the darkness, though nowhere near perfect or even great at it but good, quite good. Nightwing waited while Superboy pried open the doors to the building and they stepped inside._

_"Which way Supey?" Nightwing asked._

_He and the kryptonian were charged with disabling the bomb while Aqualad and Kid were the evacuation squad._

_"Down the hall and to the right."_

_Nightwing nodded as they took off down the halls. They were approaching the elevator shaft when Superboy broke pace and slid to a stop._

_"Nightwing! Stop, we have to leave now!" The clone shouted at the other hero._  
_"No, we have to disable the bomb." Nightwing answered as he continued on._  
_"No, there isn't time!" Superboy growled as he grabed Nightwing's arm and started to pull the hero out of the building, crashing through a wall in the process._

_Nightwing was protesting, shouting at Superboy and trying to stop the clone from dragging him but he couldn't do anything against the super strength. When The two were clear of the building and Superboy had stopped pulling Nightwing along the black clad hero took a deep breath and prepared to chew out the clone, but a sudden flash of blinding light and enormous wave of hot air propelled both of them flying into the air. Nightwing hit the ground hard and rolled over the pavement, the asphalt and rocks tearing through his suit and shredding his skin. His groaned in pain when he finally stopped by hitting a brick building. Dazed and confused the hero tried to sit up. He painfully lifted a hand to his ear-piece._

_"KF, Aqualad, are you guys okay?" He groaned._

_Seconds passed with no answer._

_"KF. Aqualad. Report." Nightwing said, his voice filled with worry and dread. His breaths and heart rate spiked when he still didn't get an answer. "KF?! Kaldur?! Report! Answer me." He bellowed, tears starting to slip down his dirt and blood spattered cheeks as he lay on the asphalt staring at the burning exploded mass that had been the Cadmus building 2.0._

Nightwing jolted awake, covered in a sheet of cold sweat. He blinked rapidly and tried to steady his breathing. It had been a little while since he'd had the nightmare of reliving that night, just like it'd been a while since he'd remembered his home after his parents but before Bruce saved him. He clenched his fists tightly before leaning back into the corner and focusing on calming himself. He closed his eyes behind the domino mask and focused on his breaths. In. Out. In. Out. One. Two. One Two. A sudden noise and the sounds of footsteps and the clamor of voices ripped Nightwing from his calming attempt, sending his pulse sky-rocketing again. He watched as the door to his white prison opened. Standing before Nightwing were Poison Ivy, Joker, Count Vertigo, Luma, Black Spider and Hook. Joker stood confidently in front of the other super villains, his usual cruel smile splayed on his clown face. He looked a little disheveled.

"So glad you could join us pretty little birdie." Joker laughed as he took a step closer to Nightwing.  
"Didn't know I was going to." Nightwing snapped at the madman.  
"Such a feisty little one. Bat's has trained your spirit well. Let's see how long it takes to break that little spirit of yours." Joker chuckled as he pulled out a knife.

Nightwing was on his feet and in a defensive stance before the villains could blink, glaring at Joker. The purple clad villain's smile only got wider as he looked at Nightwing prepared to fight. Something about the look in Joker's eyes made Nightwing hold his stance and refrain from leaping at the mad-man. Poison Ivy stepped forward, draping an arm over Joker's shoulders as she looked at Nightwing with a smug expression plastered on her green face.

"Has the little bat-bird already learned his lesson to stay in his place?" Ivy asked with a taunting note in her voice.  
"Now, now, Ivy dear. We wouldn't want to get Boy Wonder here too excited, we still have that little surprise for him." Joker reproved Ivy, with a waging of his finger.

Ivy let out an annoyed sigh before rolling her eyes.

"Fine." She said, waving her hand and walking back to the others and leaving the room. "I'll get Felina and tell her to bring the little surprise."

Joker turned his gaze back to Nightwing, who was shuddering in disgust.

"Dude, that is so totally wrong." Nightwing said to Joker.  
"What? We villains can't have a heart for our own?" Joker asked, fake hurt in his voice.  
"No, you and miss plant-butt is wrong. Wrong on so many levels." Nightwing explained, reverting to the language he used to use to describe the rolling in his stomach at seeing Ivy and Joker.

The two didn't have any time to banter further as they heard Felina walking down the hall, dragging something heavy behind her. That something groaned as Felina approached the doorway. The villains had cleared a path for the felinesque villainess to walk unhindered into the room. Nightwing listened to the moan and started to panic. As Felina walked into the light and threw what she was dragging into the center of the room Nightwing's heart and stomach dropped. Kid Flash lay on the floor, his mask back to reveal that red hair and a bloody face.

"KF!" Nightwing shouted as he dropped to his knees beside the unconscious body of his friend.

Nightwing pulled aside the red locks of hair and looked over the torn suit Kid was garbed in before lifting his gaze to the villains. His blue eyes were hidden by the mask, but they burned with such an intense fury that some of it must have shown in his expression of anguish because the villains all, except for Joker, took a hasty step back. A hideous, gut-wrenching cackle rose form the purple-suited mad-man as he bent over to support himself on his knees.

"I'll let you have some quality time with your friend before we continue this little bird. Have fun." Joker laughed as he turned and left, the others following him.

Nightwing listened to their footsteps fall away and waited a few seconds more before looking back down at his friend. Nightwing saw a black and red collar around the speedster's neck. _An inhibitor collar, great._ Nightwing groaned mentally as he began to check his friend for any bone breaks that would need some sort of attention beyond the speed-healing Kid Flash possessed. He sat back on his heels when he saw there was nothing he could do but wait for his friend to wake up. A grimace of pain crossed the black suited superhero when he returned his masked blue gaze to his best friend's bloodied and battered face.

"I'm sorry Wally." Dick whispered to his friend, his hands clamped tightly around his friend's.

* * *

**Author's Note:** I want to thank those of you that have reviewed previous chapters. I read them all and they help me to write the next chapter faster I give a huge shout out to **DragonflyThief** who has reviewed every chapter and given me amazing feedback. I love all my readers.

Now, I asked last chapter for some feedback from you guys, pairings and such, and I got one mention. One. I want to know what you guys would like to see. Now, **five **reviews and I'll post. And I mean it. I'm not posting before five reviews.


	5. Road Block - Team

The Team walked out of the hanger, only M'Gann still unconscious as she lay in Conner's arms. Kaldur led the group, followed closely by Raquel. Conner walked side-by-side with Artemis, Jaime and Karen. The entire returning team wore expressions of sadness and disappointment as they walked to the mission room, expecting Batman to be waiting, ready to declare the failure of their mission and once again suspend them from field work until they had clocked numerous hours of arduous training with the Dark Knight himself or Black Canary. The group paused at the doors. Kaldur turned his head nervously, looking to Raquel. She nodded imperceptibly and the atlantean proceeded to open the door.

When the young heroes walked into the mission room they were greeted by the sight of not only Batman but Superman, Martian Manhunter, Green Arrow, Black Canary and the Flash, as well. Each young hero who's mentor was present walked over to them, heads all bowed low. Before Kaldur could open his mouth to being explaining he was silenced by the Flash.

"Where's Kid Flash?"

The younger heroes all looked to Aqualad, the team leader, to answer the Leaguer's question. The atlantean teen took a deep breath and raised his eyes to meet in turn his king's, Batman's and Flash's eyes.

"We were unsuccessful in our mission, not only to protect the caravan as we were told but to protect each other. During the fight Kid Flash's whereabouts became unknown. I assumed that he had been forced off the truck in a similar manner to Miss Martian and Blue Beetle, and thus did not worry. It came to my attention that that was not the case only after the attacking ship departed. We were unaware that-"

"How could you not keep track of a team member? You need to know where they are at all times! Why couldn't you keep in touch with him? Why was he alone?" Flash shouted, the visible portion of his face as red as his suit.

"Flash, calm down. Let Aqualad finish." Batman ordered.

The speedster looked as though he was going to begin firing off insults at everyone in the room, but despite the anger on his face the man held back and contented himself with pacing anxious circles behind the other's, his walk blurring to an almost run. Batman turned his hard gaze from the emotional mentor to Aqualad, the hero needing no more indication to continue.

"I was unaware that he had separated from his partner, who was unconscious when the thieves departed. It was my fault for not checking sooner that all teammates were accounted for, I admit that. But I ask the League to take in to consideration that we were fighting against the Joker, Hook, Count Vertigo and two new villainnesses. We were each occupied with out own battles at the time when Kid Flash was captured, particularly since three of our members were not present; two due to injury and the third had stayed back to retrieve and tend to them. We are not entirely at fault in this matter."

Kaldur finished with a confident tone in his voice as he explained the circumstances they had found themselves in. Kaldur had explained as best as he could to the senior heroes about the circumstances that the Team had been faced with and why they had been unable to account for their teammate.

"The Team will be suspended from missions until every member has logged five hours of team combat training with Black Canary, for members with powers you will have to log an additional five with your mentors. After that, the entire team will have to pass a test and it will be passed on an all-or-none basis." Batman said, his gaze returning to the Team before turning around to leave.

"Batman, there is another matter that I must report at this time that is related to the mission." Aqualad said, his tone the same as before.

The black cloaked superhero turned his head a fraction, his eyes sending a warning message that whatever Aqualad was to say next had to either be of extreme use or well worth losing his life. Aqualad did not even flinch under the glare, instead he stood taller as he kept his face calm.

"Speak."

"During our encounter with the Joker and his party we overheard a conversation between him and Poison Ivy. What we heard from that conversation has to do with one of our own."

"That is a contradicting statement Aqualad. You said that you had no idea Kid Flash was missing during the fight and now you say that you have information on his whereabouts and knew something was going on?" Green Arrow questioned.

"I do not recall mentioning that it was Kid Flash the villains were discussing." The atlantean answered calmly, his green gaze drifting to Batman, who near-visibly stiffened. "The villains said something about having finally managing to catch the bat's old bird. I believe that since Robin is here, they were discussing their apprehension of Nightwing; That would explain his absence and lack of leaving us some knowledge of his whereabouts."

"Where?" Batman asked, his tone deadly.

"How come he's allowed to get all angry and I get scolded in front of the kids?" Flash asked in a whisper just a little too loud.

"Because your angry and his angry are two different types of angry." Black Canary told Flash as she watched Batman begin to walk towards Aqualad.

"Where?" The Dark Knight asked Aqualad again, closer this time.

"We do not know Batman. The villains got away before we could place a tracker and they never said where." Aqualad answered.

Batman walked closer still to the young atlantean hero. The two now stood toe-to-toe, their gazes locked once more in a battle for the final say. The two leaders were at odds, despite both of them knowing that the Team was the underling of the League and that Aqualad would always do as he was told. But Batman had not told Aqualad to stand down, no one had. The teen was trying to defend his team's place within the eye of the League's leader, as he should when he's dealing with heroes who tend to forget the little guys in the background.

Batman looked about ready to snap someone's neck as he glared at the teen hero, though Aqualad was sure he wouldn't. The atlantean was indeed intimidated by the superior fighter and senior hero but he was not going to be bossed entirely without a fight, and most certainly not while showing fear. The other heroes in the room watched carefully through the tension., though still angry at themselves for not noticing nor being able to help their friend, looked at their mentors with the same expression that Kaldur wore; the face of belief in one's choices and actions and the determination to stand together, as a team. The heroes around the room watched the two careufully. The younger heroes looked around, meeting eachother's eyes with expressions of worry and sadness, yet there was hope and determination within their youthful looks. All the Team looked at one another a final time, a silent command passing between them as the members all grouped together, standing on either side of Aqualad. The mentors watched their proteges as they stood in a line, a line that reflected the Justice Leaguers own. Aqualad, the Team's leader, standing in front of Batman, leader of the League and defender of Gotham. The two were looking at each other with almost glares passing between them.

"The Team is confined to the Cave unless under direct supervision of a Justice League member. Am I understood?"

The young heroes were about to protest, but Aqualad answered for them.

"Perfectly."

The Dark Knight turned away, his black cape swirling behind him and almost brushing against Aqaulad. The master detective practically stormed out of Mount Justice, leaving the Team and League to finish the talk. The young heroes all bore expressions of anger and resentment towards their mentors, the League and towards Aqualad as well. Artemis stepped forward after the Leaguers left, spinning Kaldur around, her face ablaze with fury.

"What the hell was that? You have a stare contest with him over extra training, but then you just roll over when he tells us that we're confined here. Why?"  
"Because we are here as a team." Aqualad answered.  
"And how does that help us?" Artemis snorted.  
"Because since we're here then we can get use the computer and do some digging or fishing around for information. And they won't really worry about the other's doing anything particularly stupid because they weren't involved with the mission and they're not here so they won't be aware of stuff till tomorrow. Short version, he didn't argue because this is actually a sweet deal so that we can do some leg work before getting it out to the non-cave confined team members. Right?" Garfield explained tentatively as he looked to Aqualad.  
"That is correct. We have more chance of being able to help our friends from here together than anywhere else separate." The atlantean confirmed, looking to Artemis.  
"Guess that makes sense." Artemis huffed, rolling her eyes as she leaned against the table.

The leader nodded before looking around the room at his friends. They all held the same determination in their gazes. They were a team and they didn't leave team members behind. All for one and one for all. The motto of the team most renowned for their loyalty that the Team had decided to adopt until they found their own. Kaldur refused to let his friends be captives longer than needed, and from the looks of his friends so did they.

"So, shall we get started?" Kaldur suggested.  
"Probably. So, since our plan mainly rests on getting into the Cave's database might as well as ask the essential question. Who here knows how to hack computers?" Garfield piped in as he looked around at the Team to see a majority of blank faces. He looked hopefully to Jaime who shrugged but gave a slight nod. "It's a start at least."

Garfield rushed towards Jaime and began dragging him towards the Cave's computer, eager to get started and test out the skills Nightwing had been teaching him. The two hackers settled into seats at the computer and went to work, typing away at the keyboard. Meanwhile, the rest of the present Team remained in the mission room. They looked worriedly between each other, none voicing their worries. The worry that the hackers wouldn't be fast enough, that the Team wouldn't be enough to save their friends this time.


	6. Road Block - Captured

Shrill cackles of delight echoed in the darkened warehouse. Its residents turned their heads to look at the large mass of screens and the source of the horrendous sounds, sitting before the technology. Green hair bounced in and out of view as its owner chuckled and chortled. A tall pale woman turned her startlingly yellow gaze upon the nearest being, who could hardly be thought of as human. The felinesque figure returned that harsh golden gaze steadily and challengingly, until another ripple of laughter cut through the stagnant air. All eyes turned to fall on a green-tinted figure sauntering forward with grace. The blue light of the screens made her strikingly red hair glow an ominous purple.

The woman's steps were confident as she approached the hidden madman. She knelt beside the chair, her eyes looking at the screen before her. Two super heroes, both covered in blood, locked in a room with only each other. One had just been returned after a serious session with the felinesque woman and the cruel master of disequilibrium, and lay still under his companions gaze and tears.

The green woman placed a hand on the elbow of the cackling maniac, whose green eyes tore away from the screen and settled on the mass of ruby hair beside him. The woman looked up, two sets of greens collided, one a venomous, unearthly green and the other pure as nature. A smile spread on the red-haired woman's face as she stood, her eyes still locked with the almost vile green of the man's.

"Come on Joker. Join in the fun with us." She asked with a sickeningly sweet voice.  
"But I'm having so much fun, watching these two." Came the pleading, puppy-dog like response.  
"Join us."

A cold green glare from the woman and the purple suited man had nothing to say. His dark red lips twitched into what could be thought of as either a smile of fondness or a grimace of insanity. Forgetting about the image of the two heroes on the screen Joker stood and faced the green clad woman. He lifted a hand to her petal-soft cheek, ignoring her dagger-like stare. His rough hand swiped softly at the green skin, earning him a harsh smack with her petite hand.

"I do so love it when you're angry, Ivy dear." Joker whispered as he walked away from the computers to join the other villains in their game of chance to decide the next tortures for the captive side-kicks.

* * *

Kid Flash paced nervously along the contours of the room, his steps frantic and uncontrolled. His green eyes strayed from the white path ahead of him to the still frame of his friend. Nightwing lay unmoving in the corner, suit torn and bloodied from his encounter with their captors. Smears of blood littered the white floor, rendering the room more frightening than before. Wally's emotions were running wild. His friend who was supposed to be stronger than him, despite lack of powers, was laying almost dead in the corner of their prison cell. The image of Black Spider walking in on the cieling, carrying a limp, red and white cocoon with him would forever be etched into Wally's mind, as would the fear and panick when Wally had torn open the cocoon to see a bleeding and half-concious Nightwing entangled within.

"_Nightwing!" Wally had scremed._

_No answer from his friend sent Wally into an even more frenzied panick. Blood was still seeping from the uncountable wounds that littered Nightwing's chest and back. The speedster, devoid of powers due to the collar, pulled Nightwing out of the cocoon. The sight of his friend's blood made Wally want to be sick, not because of the blood itself but because of it's source. Wally took the strange webbing of the cocoon and used it to bandage the wounds that just kept bleeding, some of them bleeding through the bandages. Wally panicked more, his heart beating fast even for a speedster. He was sweating and hyperventilating as he tried to stop the bleeding and keep his friend alive._

Wally turned his attention back to the white path that he'd been pacing for hours. His friend had barely moved and the red-head was starting to worry again. He knew basic field first-aid, not how to save a life first-aid or operations or medical procedures. All Wally knew was science, pure and blissfully simple yet complicated science. Not medicine. He could do chemistry and physics easily, but biology and human medicine just didn't work well with him. Sure, he could develop medicines but not treat. He was the brains, not the doc.

A sharp intake of breath yanked the frantic monologuing speedster to the present once-more. His green eyes darted over to his friend, whose eyes were open, blinking their pure cerulean majesty to the harsh white light of the room.

"Dick!" Wally practically screeched as he flew over to his friend's side.

The blue-eyed hero tried to lift his head, but his aching body protested. There didn't seem to be a single part of him that didn't hurt. A few seconds later, a mass of red invaded Nightwing's vision and something was squeezing his shoulders painfully tight. The body encircling Nightwing's began to shake uncontrollably. Slowly Nightwing raised an arm, ignoring the shooting pain that followed, and rested it on the speedster's shoulder.

"KF, I'm fine. Really not feeling the aster. But fine." Nightwing groaned, trying to hide the pain that flooded through his body.  
"Dude, this is not fine. This is the opposite of fine. This is a disaster, heavy on the DIS!" A pained chuckle lifted from Nightwing at his friend's use of his old language games.  
"So long as I say this is fine then it is. I've been through worse. This may not be as asterous as I'd like, but it's totally a disaster yet."  
"Explain to me how this is not a disaster? You're the ninja, stealth man who always comes up with a plan and you're barely able to move! Not to mention that the Joker has some seriously nasty and annoying party guests! I mean what is up with that clown and his bizare accompaniment? Have you seen his new girls? One has a freakin' tail! A real bonefied, completely real cat tail! Probably mutated at very young age with cat DNA, but still!" Wally ranted.

Nightwing let his friend rant on about the situation and how the Joker had an increasingly bizarre arrangement of people surrounding him. The black clad hero couldn't help but chuckle and snort, albeit painfully, at some of his red and yellow companions remarks. In his mind, Nightwing kept thinking about how if the villains beat him this badly the first times around, what was in store for the next however long he and Kid Flash would live. The blue-eyed hero made a silent promise to himself that no matter what, he'd make sure that Wally got out, and he'd be damned if he fell through on a single promise of his.

**Author's Note:** Sorry for the short chapter. This one's been giving me some blockage on how to continue here. I've got an idea on where to take it but it'll focus more, for a little while, on the villains than on our captured heroes.

Took you all a while to get the five reviews, thought I'd get a little more time to write and post this before you all began expecting it. Now it's up, but don't kill me for the shortness. Next one will be the same as the others.

I take and welcome all constructive criticism, as well as your views as readers as to what you want to happen next. Please just drop a review saying that you're reading the story, I feel so much more motivated by those and will get longer chapters up faster. Also, check out my little summary thing for the _Gryffindor's Queen and Slytherin's Prince_ story. I've started on a chapter with a few planned out and am wanting to know if anyone'll read it. Also am working on a darker Nightwing fic on how/why he became Nightwing, as well as a Teen Titans Robin fic about him being Slade's apprentice. Let me know here, there or anywhere whether or not you'd read those stories if I ever write a chapter or two and if I should post them.

I'll keep the same number of reviews as last time, **5**** no** **less. **I refuse to post till five reviews on this chapter.  
I love you all!  
Creative


	7. Road Of Tomorrow

**Author's Notes**

-How come no one told me that Jaime was hispanic and occasionally threw in the spanish word? I've yet to watch much of season two so I didn't know that. Why did no one tell me? I had him so horribly out of character in previous chapters or at least in my head I had him out of character.  
-All techno babble that goes on in this chapter and any other chapters is completely fake and made up from what I've heard scattered around on TV show's all jumbled in my brain and tossed out. Please don't judge the techno babble!  
-Also, does anyone like the Beyond And Between fic? I haven't gotten much feedback on it and am wondering if I should continue it or scratch it, because writing and planning it divides my attention and takes it from here. Tell me what you want on that matter.  
-So, I'm still deciding whether or not to make this go in a KF/Nightwing direction or more of a bro relationship. But I've decided on other pairings. You'll see them clearly soon. And when you do see them I want to know what you think of them. Got it? I want to hear your opinions on how I write them and on what to change.  
-I must give an amazing shout out to a reviewer who left me one of the longest, most encouraging reviews I've gotten so far **Jesters of the Moon**. Thank you so much. Also a shout out to my most constant reviewer who has given me great feedback and amazing criticism: **DragonflyThief.** Thank you again pal. I love all my reviewers and readers dearly. Each review and view is important to me and I'm encouraged by them.  
-**This is an important note, please read.** I'll be starting an upload schedule. Once a week, on Thursday or Wednesday, I'll upload a chapter of a story. Going like this: **Roads Of Yesterday** - **Not The Devil's Fire** - **Beyond And Between** - (eventually) **Gryffindor's Queen And Slytherin's Prince** - (eventually) **Broken Bird**, my Teen Titans Robin-is-Slade's-apprentice-still fic  
-Due to the new schedule, the "X-amount of reviews till next upload" gig is off, but keep in mind that the more reviews the more likely the next chapter is to be up early.

As usual, I love you all for reading my fanfic and thanks for putting up with the long authors note. Now without, much, further a due, I present Road Of Tomorrow.  
Love, Creative! ;D

* * *

"Recognized, Batgirl - B16"

Batman's third protégé emerged from the blaring light of the zeta-tube. Her mentor had arrived home in a furious state or furious for Batman at least. Batgirl shivered as she remembered the scene she had just left behind at home.

_The Dark Knight had snapped at his butler upon setting foot in the cave and hadn't even spared Batgirl a passing glance on his way to the computer. Strained silence engulfed the batcave as Batman typed loudly, his brow pulled into a tight scowl and eyes little more than slits._

_"Master Bruce, may I implore you to tell us what it is that troubles you?" the old butler asked._

_"The Joker has Nightwing."_

_The two bystanders were stunned into silence. They did not understand how the Joker had managed to capture Nightwing, how his disappearance had gone unnoticed or how the caped crusader was handling the abduction of his oldest protégé so well. A loud noise echoing suddenly in the cave drew Batgirl and Alfred out of their thoughts._

_Batman wasn't handling it as well as they thought. The Dark Knight was angry, angry at Joker, angry at Dick for getting captured, angry at the others for not noticing. Batman was also scared. His son was in the hands of a murderous psychopath and his group of dangerous deranged followers. Batman had a tight handle on all his emotions, or at least the ones he ran into on a regular basis; but being afraid for the safety of his partner was not one he'd had to deal with recently and he was losing his patience with controlling it quickly. The dark caped hero stood and strode out of the room, his cape billowing like an angry cloud of smoke behind him._

"Barbara, my dear, I believe that you would be more productive at the Cave then here at the moment. Master Bruce seems to require some time to himself and I have some affairs to tend to." Alfred said kindly, a hinting tone to his voice as he walked to the zeta-tube controls.

Batgirl pushed aside the rising worries that stemmed from seeing even Batman upset at Nightwing being captured. _Shouldn't he be the most calm and collected? I mean, Dick's probably been in tons of situations like this and trained for it. Being on the job for seven years'll do that to ya'_. Batgirl self-monologued.

Batgirl halted suddenly, looking around. Something was off. None of the members of the Team had assaulted her with hugs yet, and she had been present in the cave for at least five minutes. Batgirl's heartbeat quickened as she dropped into an automatic defensive crouch. She advanced silent as shadows to meet the darkest ones in the room, disappearing as she began to travel through the Cave.

She searched the living room, looked in the kitchen, inspected the rooms hallway and listened at the doors before heading towards the Cave's central computer room. She stiffened when she heard voices coming from it, but kept her advance. The red haired hero halted at the door. She risked being noticed when she peered through the slightly open door. The large holo-screen displayed the Cave's central data network with several small time hacking programs running. _What are these crooks doing, trying to hack into the Cave's mainframe with such a simple trojan piggybacking decrypting algorithm? It's silliness.  
_

* * *

Jaime and Garfield sat at the Cave's central computer, green and brown eyes glued to the immense blue screen as they tried to figure out a faster way to get by the Cave's complex protection. So far they had barely made a dent. Neither teen completely understood what they were doing and the encryptions protecting the Cave's security and files were designed by Batman and Nightwing themselves. The first fire wall was a triple encrypted, coded block with who know's how many more walls, each getting harder to crack, standing behind it. Excited grins had quickly turned to frustrated scowls. A sudden groan of exasperation echoed in the nearly silent room.

"We're not getting anywhere! Nightwing could've hacked this system a thousand times by now!"  
"Tranquilo hermano. We can do this. We just need to keep trying." Jaime said calmly, putting a hand on Garfield's green shoulder.  
"But we need to hack it now! We don't know how long Nightwing and KF have. Those psychos could've already sliced off their heads and burned their entrails to a crisp." Garfield waved his arms crazily as he spoke.  
"Gar, siéntate y cálmate. I need you to focus. You're better at this than me, so you need to pay more attention."

The green changeling nodded as he tried to clam down and looked back at the screen. His fingers began to slowly glide over the keyboard before thrumming speedily, a new idea on how to crack the near-impenetrable fortress of virtual data. Jaime watched as his friend, and the Team's secondary back-up hacker, worked on typing up a new variation on their previous code.

A quiet giggle from the door drew the attention of both boys. Their heads whipped around at a blurring speed to search the darker corner of the room for the source of the laugh. Nothing out of the ordinary greeted their gaze as they searched with quick glances. The two shared a quick glanced before turning back to the screen. Neither noticed when the shadows near the door moved, nor how the shadow seemed to be approaching them. The two boys kept their gazes on the screen, focusing on their task and oblivious to the bat-like shadow behind them.

* * *

Batgirl walked as silently as she could towards the two hacking superheroes, intent on showing them that they could use some more stealth detection training. She resisted the urge to snicker as she stopped, less than a foot away from both Jaime and Garfield yet completely unnoticed. She reached a black gloved hand out slowly and silently. The last inch, she shot her hand out like lightning and grabbed the boys' shoulders.

"Aaahh!" The two shrieked as they leapt from the chairs, scrambling into a defensive position against the computer.

The bat-themed heroine doubled over in laughter as she looked at her teammates faces. Batgirl's bubling laugh echoed in the room while Jaime and Garfield tried to compose themselves.

"Really Babs? How can you laugh at a time like this? Nightwing's missing! And so is KF!" Garfield asked once he recovered from the shock of being snuck up on by a bat.  
"Easy hermano. She was just having some fun. Come on we need to get back to hacking." Jaime said to Garfield quietly, but not quiet enough.  
"You two are never going to crack this cave's encryption with that puny little code. You guys need to use a duplicator fibanaci variant sequence with a combined decompiler and piggybacking decryption algorithm with a trojan plant to hold hte crack in the defense open." Barbra said to the boys as she pushe dher red hair behind her shoulders.

A confused look passed between the boys.

"Come again?" Garfield asked, bushy eyebrows raised.  
"You need a more hardcore decryption code combined with another heavy hitter and a door-stop if you want to crack the Cave's mainframe." She explained as simply as she could.

The two hackers shared smiles of pure glee as they rushed forward and practically shoved Barbara into a chair. They speed explained what they needed to do to Batgirl before she started typing. She modified the boys' code and sent it in, before duplicating it and launching a simultaneous attack. In a matter of minutes the three were inside the Cave's mainframe. Garfield sprinted out of the room to go get the others, hollering in excitement, while Jaime and Barbara attempted to find the files that they wanted.

It didn't take long for M'Gann, Kaldur, Connor, Cassie, Raquel, Artemis, Karren and Garfield to arrive. Most of the team had been in a debrief, sharing anything and everything that they had seen or noticed during the fight that might help. So far they had limited results, except for the fact that they knew who was involved in the newest super villain group. All of the Team was excited for new information and the possibility that they could help their captured teammates.

"What have you both found?" Kaldur asked, his pale green eyes glancing over the screen.  
"That Nightwing's been obsessed with the Joker for the last few weeks." Came Garfield's quick remark. "Hey, look at the logs. He's been looking up the guy at three A.M. for the last month every night. I'd call that obsessed," was added hastily after the scolding look from M'Gann.  
"Can you access whatever files Nightwing last observed?"  
"Si, we can. I think." Jaime answered, his voice wavering as he tried to search for the files.  
"Move over Blue, let the master's pupil get to work." Barbara joked as she took over the search, pulling up the file in seconds. "Looks like he was setting up a search for the computer to run. A pretty detailed one at that. I'll check to see if I can duplicate it and re-run it to get a possible disappearance sight."

The room was silent as Barbara worked away at the computer, her fingers flying over the keyboard faster than Nightwing's though with less results on the screen. After several "Access Denied"'s blinked red across the screen Barbara managed to find a way around the searches auto-erase protection protocol and re-run the last search that Nightwing had run. Tense silence ensued, filling the room like an unpleasant haze. Soft beeps were the only sound. At the computer's distinguished din, the team crowded around Barbara, asking to zoom in on the coordinates.

The search had pulled up an abandoned warehouse lot between Star City and Gotham, pretty close to Central City. The land surrounding the warehouses looked to be desert and void of all inhabitation for a few dozen miles in every direction.

"Perfect place for a super villain clubhouse." Artemis chuckled.

Barbara stood and walked to the door, before pausing and looking back at the team, who's members hadn't moved since they found out where the captives were being held.

"Are you guys coming? We found the lair. We should go get the boys and stop the baddies."  
"We have been ordered to stay in the Cave. Under what you would call, house arrest."  
"When has that ever stopped you before?" Batgirl asked as she walked out of the room, her cape flapping behind her.

The heroes remained in the computer room, not moving as they shared a telepathic conversation.

_She's right, you know. We've never really listened to the League when it comes to staying put before, and now would be a really annoying time to start._ Artemis said.  
_But, this is also a situation in which we cannot afford any mistakes. The lives of our teammates are in the hands of people who we know would not hesitate to kill them. If we are to do what you are all wanting to do, then we must be prepared and have all of our members rallied and by our sides.  
__Kaldur, Robin has to stay with Batman. With Batgirl on the mission, someone needs to keep Bat's off of our trail. For a little while at least, so that we can get out of the Cave before we're __permanently grounded. _Cassie said.  
_I was not referring to Robin._ The Atlantean turned to look at Artemis.  
_He's not gonna want to come. He hates "sidekick" missions._ She responded.  
_Tell him that it is Nightwing that hangs in the balance, along with Kid Flash. He may reconsider his involvement when he hears that some of his oldest friends are on the line. Also, he appears to listen to you more than anyone else now. _Kaldur insisted.  
_Fine._ Artemis grumbled before pulling out of the mental link and walking out of the room, pulling a dark green phone from a pocket at her belt.  
_Who's Artemis inviting to the party?_ Raquel asked.  
_Red Arrow._ Kaldur answered simply.  
_Why're we inviting him? He's not a part of this team. He's just a brooding archer hero who happens to be going out wit' one of our members. Why does he get to come? _Karren asked.  
_Because, he is an old friend of this team and because we require all the assistance that we are able to acquire in order to succeed in our mission to bring back Nightwing and Kid Flash alive._ Kaldur sighed. "We cannot afford to be children with petty disagreements dividing us. This team must act cohesively and as a single unit when we are on this mission. To succeed we will need as many strengths as we can handle within our team." Kaldur said, his gaze wandering over his friends.

Artemis walked back into the room, her face rigid with determination just as were her brown eyes. She stood next to Kaldur and looked each of her teammates in the eyes.

"We're going to go get those two and we're taking all the muscle and man power we can get, no matter what any of you guys say or do. It shouldn't matter that we're going so deep into enemy territory, it shouldn't matter that we're calling in an extra friend for help, we are the Team and we kick butt. It should matter that those creeps have two of our teammates, because that means that they're in for one nasty fight. 'Cause if you mess with herd of bulls, you get all the horns." Artemis said, her voice harsh and rough with edginess and a bit of anger.

The Team shook it's heads in unison, everyone agreeing with Artemis. They were a family, a unit, a single being when it came down to it. They were all heroes in their own right, but together they formed something more. Four years ago, Aqualad, Kid Flash, Robin and Superboy had formed something powerful in a single night with a single act. They made a pact that would form one of the greatest hero teams alive, a team that was meant for more than just back stage stunts. These young heroes stood side-by-side with the Justice League and fought everyday to keep their spots as the Team instead of a group of sidekicks. They were more then that, and the reason for that was owed mostly to the two heroes held captive. No one among the ten super heroes looked ready to back down. Looks of determination, readiness, eagerness and pride echoed across all their faces. Quiet steps echoed as a black figure entered the room again, red hair bouncing, before leaning against the door frame. Batgirl looked over the assembled heroes with a prideful smile.

"Guess I don't need to say, get traught or get lost?" She asked.

Brief chuckles rose in the room from the gathered heroes. They were already traught, now they just needed to wait for the final crew member to arrive. Anticipation began buzzing around the room as quiet chatter broke out amongst the Team. For what seemed like hours the Team waited, making small talk with the occasional tedious silence when a faint buzzing came life. The sudden eruption of a blasting whoosh and blinding light from down the hall called all of the heroes attentions to the sounds heard.

"Recognized, Speedy - B06"  
"Will someone please get that fixed? I'm not Speedy anymore! It's Red Arrow!" His shouts reaching even the back room, only earning suppressed snickers from the entire group, particularly Artemis.


	8. Roads Of Yore

**_Author'sNotes_**

_-First, off the reason why this took forever is because your friend Creative has been trying to get this little story a proper beta. I found one, and we've been working on making perfection. Things will move faster as the magnificent _**DragonflyThief** _and I get into a rhythm. But for now, enjoy and continue reading._  
_- Thank you to those who reviewed and helped me out with some ideas, it's really helping this fic to take a much more interesting and a longer road than what I had planned (see what I did there?). This is going to be very fun. Eight chapters in and setting up for about five more already, with more potential ones lurking in the future._

_- Just as a heads up, the people who review and leave reviews that I feel are in depth or helpful enough will get asked Random Author Questions (RAQ's), allowing them to give input on a question that I need or want answered about the fic. RAQs are a way for me to get you more involved with the story by helping me when I'm having some trouble deciding. So, review and you'll get your chance to put in your fare share of input._

_- Also, anyone notice how the chapters when there are both of them are "Roads" and when it's only one I put "Road"?_

_Thanks as always, and remember that the sky's the limit for those with will to reach it!_

_Hugs from Creative ;D_

_PS: *Child's Pose, is a yoga pose for those of you who don't already know_

* * *

Determination flared to life as Nightwing attempted to lift himself from the floor. He leaned heavily on the wall as he struggled to even start standing. After several minutes of incapacitating pain, the black clad hero was on his feet, albeit putting all of his weight onto the wall behind him. Throughout his attempts at standing and failing before succeeding, the bat protege had managed to stay silent so as to allow his normally speedy companion some rest. In an overconfident step, Nightwing slowly pushed off from the wall though finding himself unable to keep his frame standing for more than a few measly seconds.

A loud thump echoed in the room as a black heap struck the floor, followed by the quick snapping up of red-and-yellow-lump's neck. The frantic pounding of his own heartbeat was the only sound Wally heard while he scanned the room before his eyes fell on the moving heap of black on the opposite side of the room letting out a near-silent string of curses to rival a sailor. The curses grew louder as Wally approached the writhing black mass on the floor.

"This is so not asterous. What's KF gonna think when I can't even stand on my own two feet, let alone help get our sorry behinds out of this mess? He'll be totally chalant. He'll never let me hear the end of it, not to mention that we'll probably never get out of this mess."

"We will, and you totally nailed it on the chalant part. What the heck were you trying to do?" Nightwing's eyes opened wide behind his mask when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"I was just trying to walk over, no big deal. I just tripped. Nothing to worry about."

A simple quirk of the eyebrow was all Kid needed to do to make his worried expression into his unimpressed face. The speedy teen crossed his arms while letting out a sigh and sitting back on his heels beside his friend.

"KF, this stuff looks worse than it is. I just need to get some stuff wrapped and casted, that's it."

"Yeah, and we can't do that here, so if something goes wrong and you make things worse then we won't be able to do anything about it. And I rather like living, but if you die while we're both captives then I don't think Batman is going to let me live."

Both teens laughed a little at the thought of Batman chasing after Kid Flash, firing batarangs and letting loose the entirety of his bat-themed arsenal upon the speedster.

"You would definitely not be feeling the aster if he caught you, that much is for sure," Nightwing grunted as he tried to sit up against the wall, face scrunching before forcibly relaxing in a vain attempt to hide his discomfort.

A red gloved hand reached out to Nightwing's shoulder. Hidden blue eyes lifted to meet Kid's worried green gaze. A paltry smile flashed on Dick's face as he attempted to hide the visible hints of his pain. Wally's eyebrows pulled together, a fretful expression taking over his features.

"You need to stay still. We don't how badly your ribs are fractured, some of them may even be broken. Also, we don't know concretely if you do or do not have a concussion and we really don't want to aggravate the slices on your legs."

"KF, I'm fine. You don't need to go all Alfred on me."

"Dude, stop saying you're fine. You're obviously not. No one, not even Batman, could be with all the visible injuries that you have! You saying you're fine is just making me worry more, not less. It makes me think that you're going to try and do something stupid."

A brief silence followed the speedster's outburst, disrupted by a short chuckle from the black clad hero.

"I said you didn't need to go all Alfred on me."

Green eyes wide with offense, the speedster opened his mouth a snarky comment at the ready when the echo of voices cut him off. The two heroes shared a quick glance before Kid was on his feet and standing in front of Nightwing, feet shoulder width apart and hands at the ready.

Behind him, Nightwing pushed against the wall to stand. His knees shook and the entirety of his body protested by making it's pain known, but the injured hero pushed that aside and focused on the sounds. Eyes closed and listening carefully, Nightwing was able to pick out Joker's disturbed cackle, Ivy's misleadingly velvet shout and the Count's heavily accented roar through the muffling of the walls. Nightwing was sure that Kid had distinguished the voices as well when the Bat protege saw the speedster's hands tightened into fists and the rest of his body stiffen.

Kid Flash kept his eyes glued to the door, hoping that he'd developed heat-vision and would be able to fry the creeps before they got anywhere near his friend again. The door slid open, darkness almost seeming to creep into the surprisingly well lit room, followed by an unmistakable cackle and the plummeting of Kid's stomach. The speedster had put off all thoughts of food, ignoring the thunderous cries from his high burning metabolism, and he continued to do so as a crowd of villains walked in. Kid clenched his fists tighter. He wouldn't fail his friend like he had last time.

_The two stood side-by-side, shoulder-to-shoulder, as they watched the door having leapt into their battle stances. Neither hero dared to breathe or move a muscle as they heard the door begin to slide open. They watched silently as statues as the group of villains stepped into their disturbingly white room._

_"What do you want?!" Kid Flash snarled at them, anger lacing his vicious tone._

_A short, sharp cackle rose from the head of green hair bouncing merrily next to Poison Ivy. The group's insane leader skipped towards the heroes, who nearly leapt at the deranged clown. Another bone-chilling shriek of laughter cut through the tense atmosphere in the room When the Joker noticed the uneasiness of the heroes._

_"Don't worry kiddies, Daddy Joker won't hurt you. Yet."_

_A harsh cacaphony swamped the ears of the heroes as the group of thugs behind Joker laughed. The clown turned his head to look at the group behind him, Ivy, Felina, Hook, Vertigo and Harley, his sickly green eyes giving them all an acrid glare. A white gloved hand beckoned Ivy to join him, "Ivy, dear," his hand twirled expectantly, "come join me."_

_The green woman walked calmly forward, her head held high and graceful strides confidant. She slowly placed her hand on top of Joker's. The silent heroes received a demeaning look from the Queen of Flora as she stood beside Joker._

_"When last we met, the four of us, you two severely wounded my little darling and didn't even say sorry. Now, I know we come from opposite sides of the track, but you youngsters are supposed to be the goodie-two-shoes who never put a toe out of line. In this case your entire little team are the ones responsible, but you two were the biggest offenders, causing the most damage without any sort of words of atonement," Joker wiped a pretend tear away._

_"And, so I've heard, that's the worst kind of crime among you. So, you get the worst punishment from us." Felina almost purred in the background, her tail lashing the the air as she examined her claw-like nails._

_Kid cast a quick glance over his shoulder to Nightwing, who in turn shook his head. A groan almost left the speedster before he refocused on the grouped villains._

_"Which of you kiddies wants to go first?"_

_A silence ensued._

_"I t'ink they need some more encouragin' mr.J." Harley squeaked from behind Hook._

_"I think you're right dear. Why don't we send out Blackie and Luma to bring them back some lady company?"_

_At the sound of those words there was nothing that could hold back the heroes. They shot forward towards the villains in sync, moving almost as a single being. Kid lunged straight for Joker, but the clown had other plans. Instead of his fist meeting soft flesh, Kid's punch swung through air. In the second it took the speedster to register the fact Vertigo began his attack. Kid Flash rounded to face the green cloaked villain before pushing away the nausea and trying to run at him. Unfortunately, without his speed, Kid couldn't do much against the Count and he crumpled to the ground. Livid green eyes flashed from under red fringe as Kid Flash quickly looked over to his teammate, who was mostly hidden behind the purple clad figure of the barbarous clown and his psychotic tree-hugger girlfriend._

_Felina approached Kid Flash cautiously. The hero was strong, that she had to admit. He was fighting with everything he had against Vertigo and the constant onslaught of dizziness and sharp, continuous streams of pulsing nausea. A stream of blood had come to start pouring from the young hero's nose from his effort to try and fight against the Count's powers. As Felina approached the curled up hero, she felt some sort of pity. He was a good fighter, sort of. A bit clumsy, she'd noted, but he had heart and, from what she was seeing now, he was loyal. A small smirk of a smile fell on her lips as she stopped beside the speedy hero, nodding to Vertigo to halt his attack. The master of balance did as requested, allowing the fellinesque villainess to strike, in rapid succession, a multitude of pressure points on the hero, effectively paralyzing him temporarily and causing him to slip into what would be his last pleasantly dark slumber._

"Not again." Wally growled under his breath.

The speedster shoved the bile rising in his throat back down as he watched sickly green eyes look at the old Boy Wonder with an inhuman fire burning within the perturbed depths. Joker understood that if he were to take Nightwing as is plaything again that disastrous consequences would ensue, but that didn't mean that the clown wouldn't get a few laughs out of it, and making the little bird pay for all the times he and the Bat had messed up schemes of his. Though, the speed brat had caused him a fair amount of trouble too. A forced pout sprang onto the clown's face, looking horribly mismatched with the gaudy red painted smile.

A cold-blooded guffaw echoed around the white room after a pause. Chills flooded down both heroes spines at the eerie tone to the burning cold of the laugh. The green haired villain turned his attention to the speedster with a sadistic gaze that told him that Joker planned on using him as a punching bag instead of Nightwing this time.

A sense of relief flooded the red-head as he realized that his friend was going to be safe for a little while at least, despite the fact that that meant that he would be the one coming back bruised and battered.

A sharp snap of bony gloved fingers and Felina was striding away from the group of villains to stand by Joker, followed by Harley Quinn. Kid cast a brief glance over his shoulder, a small nod from Nightwing telling him the plan. This would be their last chance to get out mostly unscathed but alive, despite the slim chances and neither hero wanted to be stuck with the villains without some semblance of having tried. Waiting wasn't much of an option, especially with the grim outlook on both positions.

The two heroes prepared to, quite literally, start the fight for their lives.


	9. Roads Of Night And Sound

_**Author's** **Note**_  
_Please forgive me for the delay in updating this fic and Beyond and Between, I've had some __snafus with my beta needing to take a break and thus asking another good reviewer for some help proofing and betaing this chapter. I __want you guys to all give a huge word of appreciation to **Jesters of the Moon** for being a great beta for the chapter and giving me some of the best feedback about what to keep putting in the story. According to both Jester and _**DragonflyThief**_ the little hilarious, yet totally accurate descriptions are well liked and perfect. (_Examples: Psychotic tree hugger girlfriend, Junior Musketeers, "entirety of his bat-themed arsenal"...) _Is that a true fact? Let me know.  
__On another note, this chapter is by far the longest I've ever written. It stands at just over 6,000 words, so I would hope that that makes up for my slow updating. Don't expect chapters this long though, it's only because it didn't feel fair to leave you guys on too big of a __cliffy after so many recent ones. But never fear, this is not the end of the fic. Not even close.  
__So, enjoy. Read on and please review. I'm getting lots of favorites and follows on this and Beyond and Between, but what I want and need to keep writing these fics is reviews. That's what tells me that you're reading and are interested and want more. I love that you're favoriting or following the fic, but the reviews are what helps and really make me want to write.  
_  
_Anyway, I wish you all pleasant times and warn you all not to let the Joker in tonight..._  
_Luffles, Creative ;D_

* * *

Miss Martian sat at helm of the bioship, her gaze focused on the visible sky ahead of her as the Team below her chatted nervously. The martian empath felt the nervous emotions of all the heroes around her, despite the efforts of some to conceal them. Worry. Anger. Impatience. Even fear. The green girl repressed the shudders of fear that rolled down her spine as she recognized the source of the strongest fear in the room, aside from her own.

Soft amber eyes drifted to the seemingly lone hero in the crowded room. Normally on large team missions the solitary red-headed heroine would be seated with Nightwing and Robin, typically all sharing some sort of joke or laughing at the latest prank their merry troupe had pulled. But now neither of the third bat-protege's companions were present and that seemed only to amplify the state of the girl's emotions. A mixture of everything the others were feeling, and then some. Regret. Dismay. Deep sorrow. Spiralling self-blame...

A small shake of the bioship made Miss Martian refocus on her task of piloting the vessel. Concerned looks from the gathered team made the green girl scold herself for losing so much of her focus in her empath powers.

"What's up Miss M? Something bothering you?" A peppy voice sounded from below.  
"It's nothing. I just got lost in a train of thought."  
"We require the full attention of all members present. We cannot afford for your attention to be divided Miss Martian. Please, tell us what it was that you were so consumed by within your thoughts." Her amber eyes lifted to meet the calm green gaze of her leader. "We wish to aid you in placing your focus where it is needed."  
"It is not my place to tell. Really it was just that everyone's feeling so upset about Nightwing and Kid Flash that it's a lot to handle in such a confined space."  
"Perhaps someone who is not as in tune with the emotions of the Team could pilot the bioship, to allow you some time to recollect yourself so that we may proceed to plan our rescue mission with care."  
"I'll do it. Flying this plane's just as easy for her as it is for me, or at least almost as easy." Bumblebee said as she got up from her seat.

The martian nodded almost eagerly as she stood and stepped away from the now manual controls for the bioship. As the yellow-and-black striped heroine sat the controls, Miss Martian sat in the girl's seat beside Batgirl.

_'Batgirl, do you want to talk?' The green girl asked telepathically._  
_'Not really, but I guess if you're asking that I'm not doing too well at hiding.'_  
_'Hiding what?'_  
_'I'm worried about him.'_  
_'We all are; that is nothing to be afraid or ashamed of.'_  
_'You are all worried because he's in danger of losing his life. Me? I'm scared of never seeing him again.'_ Batgirl's telepathic voice quivered as she started to pull her arms around her before realizing that there were others around her.  
_'Batgirl, don't worry so much. We'll find Nightwing. I'm sure we will. We'll find KF too. They'll be alright.'_  
_'It's not that I don't trust those two idiots to stay relatively safe or us to get there on time, but I just can't get rid of the feeling that something's going to go wrong. Something always does on jobs like this. And just for once, just this once, I want to be wrong. I told him no when he asked me out because I thought that it wouldn't be right, and I refused to admit it to myself that I liked him.'_ The red-head felt the telltale prickle spring to life at her eyes, soon to cause the beginnings of tears concealed beneath her mask. A quick hand darted up to erase the offending tingle and halt the offending tears before they started prior to continuing, '_I didn't want to let myself believe that we could be together because we can't be. If we were together, it would put us, and you guys, in too much danger because of how we live and that if we ever got together.'_

Miss Martian lifted a cautious hand from her knees and began extending it towards her almost crying companion, hoping to be able to soothe the increasing waves of sadness and regret that spilled off of the red-head. Before her hand could reach the silently suffering protege Miss Martian heard a faint tugging at the back of her mind. Immediately all her attention went to that familiar sensation. It was a mind that she knew well, a mind that she had been linked with so many times. The martian raised her hands to her head and closed her eyes as she focused. However, as the young green girl honed in on the well-known-speeding-mind's location she neglected to separate her own from Batgirl's.

_'It's Kid's mind, isn't it?'_  
_'Yes. It is. I'm almost sure of it. No one else can think this fast, or at least this many random things this fast.'_  
_'If we've found him, then that means that Dick is close! He should be fine right? I mean, you can feel his mind right?'_ Too late did Batgirl realize the amount of hope that had seeped into her mental voice.  
'_I'm feeling something faint. But, I'm not sure. There is something surrounding it, too many minds and so much pain_.' Miss Maritan's face contorted into a face of dread and aprehension as she tried to probe the pain-concealed mind, '_So much pa-_'

A sudden, piercing shriek ripped from the pained mind, tearing into Miss Martian's open one. Both hands snapped up to Miss Martian's ears to attempt blocking the horrific, blood-curdling caterwauls. In a split second of rational thought Miss Martian, brought on by her and Batgirl's panicked screams, cut the Bat protege from their mental connection The green girl let out a stifled cry of her own, causing the entirety of the ship's occupants to rush to her side.

"M'Gann!" A gruff voice called as he kneeled beside the stiff form of his girlfriend.

"Miss Martian, what is the cause of this? Batgirl, do you know what caused the outbursts?"

"We were talking, Aqualad, that's it. And then this-this shrieking suddenly cut in. It kind of sounded like Nightwing." Batgirl's chest rose and fell at an uneven rate, her heart hammering madly against her chest as she thought through what she had just heard.

Her mind didn't care that there was a possibility that it could not be him. She had recognized that familiar rumble in the shriek, the little rumble that she had grown to appreciate more than any other sound, no matter how much she wanted not to. She had never thought that the little things that she thought were so special to the Dark Knight's first protege would one day inspire this type of fear in her. The agonizing tone of the shriek scared her more than any other possible worldly form of pain or harm.

After tense seconds recomposing herself Batgirl looked up from her once-shaking hands to the dumbstruck people around her. They were still watching Miss Martian. Batgirl turned her eyes to look at the green girl as well, her stomach almost doing a belly flop when she did.

The martian's entire focus was put to concealing her mind and keeping her voice from letting out it's own version of the sounds echoing in her head, leaving her usual green form to melt into her true white martian one. The newer recruits, Batgirl included in part, could only stare at their teammate.

Superboy was still at Miss Martian's side, holding onto one of her hands as he spoke soft words, words that the Team never thought they would hear Superboy ever say. Several tense minutes passed before Miss Martian opened her tightly shut eyes and acknowledged the world within the ship. Slowly Miss Martian shifted her form to the one the Team was accustomed to seeing. However, her normally expressive face was blank and almost detached. She lifted her amber eyes to meet the questioning green gaze of Aqualad. As she let out a sigh, even in her non-emotion conveying state the Team could sense the words they already knew were coming.

"I found Kid Flash for sure, I'm not certain about Nightwing though. I heard Kid and then when I tried to find Nightwing, I found a mind that was a jumbled mess. There was so much pain..." Miss Martian curled deeper into Superboy's waiting arms.

Aqualad opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by a sudden interjection from Batgirl, who rose quickly from her chair wearing an expression not unlike Miss Martian's as she almost growled, "It's him. I recognized the sound of his voice, that was Nightwing. They're both down there, and he's in pain."

The Team looked at Batgirl, eyes wider than normal and mouths slightly agape as she moved from the huddled group to the pilot's seat. She shooed a shocked Bumblebee from the seat and took control of piloting the ship, steering it towards where she had felt Miss Martian's mind wander before the sounds of Nightwing scre- no, where Kid Flash was being kept along with Nightwing. That was how she had to think about it. There was no other way. She had to keep thinking that he would be strong, strong enough to make it through that. There had to be a way for Dick to make it through the pain.

Not even minutes later Batgirl stood up at the pilot's chair, having stopped the ship a half-mile from where the computer had said the warehouse was. Her stern glare snapped all the heroes from their stupor. Aqualad, who had been thinking up a new strategy, turned his attention to the archers and the magician, who had separated themselves from the group and were looking out the window over the vast desert.

"Red Arrow. Artemis. Zatanna. Join us, I wish to discuss the final plans before we move in on the warehouse."

As the three shared one last worried look, the steady-minded leader of the Team began to re-explain his final ideas for a plan, repeating to everyone where they were to go and what they were to listen for. The Team shifted around him, settling into their covert operations mode and focusing on the task at hand with the utmost drive and seriousness. This was one mission they could not afford to mess up on, and they all knew it.

* * *

Loud shouts rumbled from the other side of Kid's prison walls. The redheaded speedster leaned heavily on the wall as his heart hammered madly against his chest. Nervous anger had seeped deeply into his skin as the sounds of fighting had erupted beyond his reach. As Kid struggled to stay upright his left leg throbbed, almost buckling beneath him when he tried to put weight on it even with the support of the wall. Teeth gritted in determination, the speedster took a step straight across the room, towards the door out of his room-like cell. Naturally fast reflexes were the only things that kept him from landing face-first on the hard, white floor. Frustrated curses burned into the air as Kid shifted, ignoring the painfully loud protests that his limbs gave him, and glared green daggers at the shimmering white door; the only thing that was separating him from his friend.

Determined anger replaced the nervous feeling in his gut as strong fists clenched at his sides, sliding under him as he once again tried getting to his feet. Once he was standing again, though leaning on the wall, Kid took a deep breath. He wanted to just cross the room, bang on the door with all his strength and hope for a different outcome of the repeated action. He didn't care if that was the definition of insanity. It was his only option besides sitting down and just listening to the commotion happening just beyond the four walls surrounding him. But his leg seemed opposed to that. It wanted Kid to just sit down and let it heal, but with the collar active and cutting off all his supernatural abilities, including his super-healing; leaving sitting down and waiting for the leg to heal would take longer than he ever cared to imagine.

A harsh fist collided with the unmoving wall as Kid let out a vicious sounding growl. His green eyes were alight with an unfamiliar fire as his face wrinkled in anger. His curled fist rested against the wall as Kid shook with anger. He wasn't angry at Nightwing, or Joker, or Batman, or anyone, except himself. He was the one who had let himself get captured. He was the one who had started the fight with the villains. And most importantly, the one who had lost focus during that fight and ultimately lost it.

The scene wouldn't stop playing over in his mind; the smart-assed quips from Nightwing, the narrowly missed clawing attacks from Felina coupled with Hook's extendable appendage, the second too long cockiness in his stride... Another hit shook the white wall infront of Kid, causing minute cracks to appear in the solid block as Kid's hand stung angrily.

The rumbling clamor of fighting increasing across the room and beyond the wall was like the never-ending background music to a song he couldn't stand, nerve grating, irritating and only making him more worked-up. Frustration boiled in Kid's blood as he growled silently to himself, 'If Nightwing can fight with all of his injuries, then I can damn well make it the door!'The speedster let out a determined snarl as he leaned almost completely on the wall and took a step forward. To his surprise and pleasure neither leg gave out beneath him despite the searing pain. The pain, the grating sound of fighting and the thought of his friend push Kid to take another step. And then another. And one more. And the next step. One step at a time, sometimes falling and having to haul himself back to his feet, sometimes being able to take two strides without stopping, Kid made it around the room.

At the foot of the door he collapsed into a limp pile of red and yellow, body burning as if lit on fire and then doused in hot metal. He wanted nothing more than to curl up and sleep, but being so close to the door he heard the fighting clearer. He heard the sounds of shoes knocking into bodies, armor hitting the floor, metal against metal, grunts and shouts and a scream now and then. That was more chaos than even Nightwing could create.

"They found us." He whispered almost joyfully to himself, a faint echo of a smile ghosting on his cracked and broken lips.

He knew that he should be happy that there were other people outside, fighting either alongside Nightwing or without him altogether, to get them out of there. But, Kid couldn't help but feel the growing sense of nervousness and inadequacy. Here he was, the Fastest Boy Alive trapped in a little white room while his teammates battled some of the more dangerous foes that they've gone up against. That smarted a little bit, like the time when Artemis had told him that M'Gann was with Conner. That had been a sad day. And his birthday no less! An oddly playful scowl crossed over his face as Kid remembered that he was still angry at Artemis for ruining his special day with that news. Then again, it was better to have a smarting heart than a broken face after a punch from Supey at kissing his girlfriend.

A rough, hoarse chuckle echoed from Kid before being replaced with squeak of surprise at seeing a blue-green blur phase through the white wall. Kid struggled with his natural urge to rush over to the figure laying on the floor, after slamming into the wall cracking the spots where Kid had punched it even more. He had barely managed to get over to the door in the first place. But then again, someone had just flown through a wall and into another. A low groan echoed in the almost quiet room.

"Miss M?" Kid asked cautiously as he attempted to at least stand and hide some of the injuries or pain he was feeling. "Why is Nightwing so good at covering up that sort of thing? I mean you never see him in pain, no matter how much he should be." Kid thought to himself.

"Because he doesn't manifest it externally. I felt his mind, he was in so much pain..." Miss Martian groaned telepathically as she sat up and suppressed a shudder at the memory of the terrifying sounds of utter pain.

"That makes sense." Kid said aloud, managing to lift his left leg off the floor without arousing any suspicion as to why.

The green appearing white martian stood shakily on her feet as she walked over to Kid, steps growing steadier with each stride. Her hood was pulled, once again, over her face as she approached. She grabbed Kid's hand and yanked him towards the door, phasing herself and the speedster through it.

'_Team, I've found Kid. He seems to be, mostly, in good condition. But Nightwing wasn't with him.'_ Miss Martian said to everyone as she and Kid paused beside the wall, allowing the speedster to recover from density-shifting through the wall.  
'_Noted Miss M. Now, will you and KF come help us please? Getting tails kicked by crazy ninjas now!'_ Beast Boy said over the mind-link, evidently strained and unfocused.

The martian almost sped off down the corridor before seeing Kid still on the ground and not rushing ahead of her. She knelt beside him, concern knitted on her face.

"Are you okay?"  
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just need to get the collar off before I can do anything." Kid said, his voice echoing a partly-failing attempt at a laugh.

A pensive expression crossed Miss Martian's face as she thought about what to do. She didn't have the brute strength to break it off and nor did she want to attempt any kind of phasing it off. With a sudden light bulb and, "Hello M'Gann!", she began telekinetically floating Kid down the hallway after herself.

Seconds later the two emerged from the dark hallway and were met with an almost distressing sight. The Team had been surrounded and cornered in a circle by what seemed like a sea of black garbed ninjas sporting a half-orange-half-black mask. The Team was still fighting, despite there being no obvious end to their situation besides the obvious. Both the martian and speedster let out small growls of pure annoyance and fury at the ninjas. Miss Martian dropped Kid to the ground as her eyes glowed a dangerous green. Her arms raised into the air, bringing with them ten of the black dressed men in front of her. With a sweeping motion she flung the suspended men into their comrades, knocking more to the ground and causing a much needed distraction for the Team.

The superpowered juveniles leapt into action once more. Blue glowing hammers smashed down; sonic beams ricocheted off walls; varying degrees animalistic roars echoed; shouts of pain, exclamations of surprise and colorful curses lit the air. The black sea writhed as the fighting took on another degree of ferociousness.

Kid watched, angrily, as his teammates fought, wishing that he could be beside them. He pressed his back against the wall and began a new attempt at standing. His teeth grinded together almost painfully as he forced the protests of pain rising in his throat down. Once on his feet Kid looked out at the fighting mass of black dotted with color. He steeled himself, or tried to, against the onslaught of pain sure to follow him. He began stepping awkwardly into the battle. The pain that sprang to life from his leg was almost enough to send him to the ground, but as a ninjaesque figure approached him, followed by more, Kid snapped into hero mode and forgot all about the pain. He tried to dodge the hits as much as he could, but ended up taking the brunt of the beating on his arms before getting some choice hits in and sending his attacker to the ground. Moving on to his second foe Kid felt the nagging of not only his injured limb but the disaster looming from his lack of food consumption. The red-and-yellow speedster didn't have time to continue down the train of thought or his fight as a loud shout rang over everything, catching all the heroes' attentions.

"Drop your weapons and surrender, unless you want to see your leader in a coffin!"

All the fighting in the room ceased, leading to a strained silence. All eyes quickly found the source of the booming voice standing high upon a thin, metal balcony, large hand clasped around the back of Nightwing's uniform while he suspended the heroic youth above the ground. Panic surged in Kid's chest as he saw his friend. More cuts had appeared scattered over the black kelvar and now one arm looked definitely longer than the other and twisting oddly at the shoulder. Gasps of surprise and stifled growls of anger rose from the heroes, reminding Kid that he wasn't alone anymore. But when he looked up at Nightwing and saw the precarious position of his friend, the speedster couldn't help but think, 'I'm responsible for this,' as he glared more than angry green daggers at the man holding his friend, at the near-fear inducing orange and black mask of the most annoying and dangerous villain behind the Prince of Gotham Crime; the only villain to spark fear in the speedster besides the Arkham Crazies like Scarecrow, the Joker or Bane. The terrified eyes of the young heroes fell upon the shadowed figure of Deathstroke.

"I said drop the weapons," Deathstroke glared at the heroes with his single eye and leaned into his leg resting on the upper bar of the balcony. "Drop them or I drop him."

Aqualad's green eyes narrowed as he locked sights with Deathstroke, trying to read the man. A frustrated expression found it's way through the cracks of distress on the leaders face. With barely noticeable turns of his head, Aqualad turned to look at his teammates.

_'Aqualad, I can take a shot. I don't think ugly has spotted me yet,_' a rough, melodic voice rang through the Team's collective mind-link.  
'_Is there anyone who feels as though they can retrieve Nightwing as he falls if Artemis distracts Deathstroke?_' The Atlantean asked.

The ensuing silence was all Aqualad needed in answer. His light green eyes lifted from the dark floor, littered with unconscious forms, to Deathstroke. The Atlantean's face was calm and collected, though to one who knew him it was a forced look of placidity. His hands clenched around the water-bearers they held. The Team around him tensed for a fight, not expecting what followed. A sudden clamor rose as Aqualad sighed and released his hold upon the black contents of his fists. In awe the rest of the Team, especially Kid, could only gawk at the leader.

"Team, relinquish your weapons," a clearly defeated tone ringing in his voice.

The sounds of dropping weapons were few, but there weren't many members of the Team with them in the first place. The Team gathered closer together, though missing an archer and a speedster. None seemed to notice the absences as they watched Deathstroke smirk at them. The masked villain pulled Nightwing back onto the balcony and begins to walk down the stairs, hauling the immobile form over his shoulder.

Low, muffled grunts escaped Nightwing as each step jostled him and his injuries. He was almost certain that his shoulder was dislocated and that he had several broken ribs. After the beatings he had taken, there was no doubt in that. He also knew for sure that he had some measure of fracturing his non-dislocated arm, not to mention the probable bone bruising to every inch of his body. It would take him weeks if not months to fully heal. He groaned at the thought before letting out another sharp hiss of pain as Deathstroke shifted the hero's position on his shoulder, almost purposefully putting pressure on a still gaping wound.

Nightwing barely held onto his miniscule thread of consciousness as he felt Deathstroke walk through the complex, only to halt abruptly at the entry way. The villain turned to look at the heroes surrounded by his lackeys. A sharp groan of displeasure left the impatient villain's lips.

"You crazy assed clown, get your bumbling buffoons and your butt in gear before I leave you to deal with the Junior Musketeers alone." Deathstroke shouted hoarsely, his loud voice causing Nightwing's trained one's to ring in pain.  
"Calm down, will you? Not like we planned on having to pack up our base in five minutes or less with a group of kids in the way!" Ivy snapped at Deathstroke as she peeked her head from behind a monitor and stack of piled boxes.

Hook, Felina, Black Spider, Luma and the rest of Joker's gang, minus the clown himself, were all carrying boxes and crates out of the warehouse and loading them on trucks. Deathstroke let out an exasperated groan as he signaled for the remaining conscious lackeys to go and help the slow-moving villains. It didn't take long for them to finish loading then. After the final box left the warehouse Deathstroke and Joker stopped at the doorway, looking back at the Team. Deathstroke still held Nightwing over his shoulder.

"We'll see you around kiddies. Daddy Joker's got some things to do. Be good, do your homework and be in bed by nine," Joker chortled evilly as he looked at the heroes.  
"Leave Nightwing," rose a hoarse, anger-laced voice.

A spot of red limped through the downed throng of Deathstroke ninjas. The Team turned to see Wally limping heavily towards them while he leaned on a broken pipe for support to avoid falling down. His suit was almost as torn as Nightwing's, making the typically joking speedster appear almost feral with his anger.

"No can do, Flash Kid. See, old mister Death and I have an agreement, an agreement that needs to be settled. And for that to happen your buddy the bird has got to come along with us." A characteristically sadistic grin splashed across the twisted clown's face as growls of anger rose from the group of heroes to cover the few shocked gasps. "Now just sit tight on and be quiet until we get out of range, otherwise we'll get to see some fireworks!" Joker said, putting an arm over Deathstroke's unoccupied shoulder.

The Team's expressions all mimicked Kid's now, pure and unbridled fury plain upon their faces and in their stances. The majority of the young heroes managed to keep their tempers and emotions in check, both inwardly and outwardly. However, two were not doing so well.

Batgirl, hidden in the shadows as always, was forcing herself to stay still, imposing her iron-will, strong enough that was fabled to have bent Batman's, to make her body listen to her rational mind despite the overwhelming urge to leap at the creeps and beat them into oblivion. Her eyes were shut tightly as she focused on trying to calm that emotions running wild in her mind. The anger, the regret, the fear, the helplessness... She let out an inaudible groan as she attempted to box up her emotions. Success was almost her's until her ears caught a drifting bit of the conversation happening around her.

"Little Boy Blunder's much more important than you meddlesome children. Not to mention, so much more fun. I think I'm starting to see why old Scarecrow is into creating fear. It is so much fun. But, being a clown at heart, I will always strive for laughter." Green hair bobbed in dull light of a setting sun from the door as Joker leaned forward in a mocking bow. As he came up, his acid green eyes locked with Kid Flash's; a taunting smirking grin passed over the too-rosy-red lips of the clown before continuing, "Now, not to be a spoilsport kiddos, but your dear Uncle J and his crew have got to go. So many jollies to be had out there in the big bad world. All you children be good heroes, finish your homework and be in bed by nine, and hey please tell the big man I said-"

Joker narrowly missed a yellow rimmed batarang flying his way before it embedded itself in the metal behind him. Looking from the object to it's origin the clown saw too late a very ticked off Batgirl charging him from the rafters. Her cape fluttered madly as she swung down from the rafters above the villains with infuriated grace, all the while launching almost accurate batarangs at them. Superboy and Aqualad rushed forward, trying to get a hold on the raging bat without hurting her. Unfortunately, the upside of being the Batman's protege was the downside to controlling an enraged teenager.

With the same startling ease that Batman dropped from rooftops, Nightwing swung from the rafters and Robin melted to the shadows, Batgirl threw off Superboy and Aqualad before turning to face the villains, scathing, anger-fueled words at the ready.

"You psychopathic son of a-" she started shouting before the rest of the sentence died in her throat.

The metallic door of the warehouse swung completely open, orange setting light sweeping in unhindered by the three forms once standing there. All the anger and rage that had been boiling so hot in her veins only seconds before had died down to freezing, congealing her blood within her veins. Slowly she sank to her knees. Incomprehension filtered onto the broken mask that Batgirl typically wore. A numbness set in, drifting over her like waves over the beach at high-tide, as realization dawned on her and regret nipping at her heels. She had been the cause of them losing Nightwing this time. Her eyes prickled madly, letting her know that she was on the verge of showing more pure emotions. She tried to care, to hide the pain and bury the want to cry like she always did; but the pain clawed harder to be felt, the want-no need- to cry swamped her harder than ever, and she just couldn't let go of the things reminding her that she had failed. The muscles and tendons of her jaw tightened as she gritted her teeth and forced everything remotely related to feelings into a box, a lead box, before locking it and dropping the box in her mental ocean of Forgetfulness, more like a puddle in her case but it would work, and dropping the key there as well.

Now was no time to breakdown, her failure was showing her that much. Mind steeled to her heart, Batgirl closed her eyes for a few brief seconds. She felt the familiar touch of Miss Martian's questioning mental hand and allowed her in. The quiet feeling of Miss Martian's mind inside her own made Batgirl focus even more. The girl pushed of of the ground with her hands, standing unsteadily but sure of herself. It was her turn to be told, "Get traught or get dead." She began walking towards the door, Aqualad and Superboy in close pursuit with Red Arrow mysteriously having come out of nowhere to follow. Slowly the Team snapped out of their stupor from witnessing the, possibly, only time Batgirl ever let her focus and control slip on a mission, and began to trickle outside. The practically set sun gave a barely hopeful atmosphere to the disheartened group.

The tuned ears of the group all listened and turned their heads to watch a pretty mangled looking Kid Flash limp and stumble through the doorway. Their mission to save their teammates had not been a total failure. One out of the two was safe. The Team converged on top of Kid for a group hug, all but Batgirl.

The gray-black heroine hung back as she looked up to the darkening sky set ablaze with the mysterious pastel colors of the setting sun. The sunset signified the end of something, leading to the darkness before the rise of the light. Maybe that was what had happened. The Team had failed, she had failed, because if they succeeded then they wouldn't be done, there might have been something else to figure out. Maybe Nightwing would lead them to an even bigger organization.

With her sapphire eyes turned towards the seemingly painted sky, Batgirl sent up a silent wish to anyone who was listening above to just give her a little bit of a break and let her be right once again, that there was something else to discover... that she had not just screwed up the only chance the Team would ever get to save their teammate.

"Team, report immediately. Status of message urgent. When not in danger zone, contact Watchtower," rang a deep gravelly voice through all the communication devices.

A collective groan escaped the entire team at the non-reassuring voice of Batman. It was going to be a very long next few weeks, very long indeed if the heroes ever got to sleep. Training, eating, homework and school would be the only things on the schedule for many weeks to come, and none of the heroes anticipated the non-stop rigor of both Canary and Batman as training mentors.

With lead feet dragging in the ground the heroes all loaded into the bioship, settling into chairs and preparing to leave. They would face whatever came their way to protect their friends. They had just proven that with Kid Flash, and it would soon be turn to do so with Nightwing.


	10. Roads Apart

_**Author'sNote**:  
_

_So, I must give a shout-out to my beta, who has worked her butt off with me late at night almost every night for the last week or so to bring you this chapter. She gets me pushing myself to write the story faster and more consistent, as well as putting more into a single chapter. You guys owe her a lot, because otherwise I would've been stuck without her help. Three cheers to **Jesters of the Moon! **  
Also, I may have lied to you guys about not posting anymore outrageously long chapters. Tell me, do like them better this long or shorter?  
Another matter to discuss, would you rather read about Wally, the Team or Nightwing next chapter? It's up to you guys to review and tell me. I won't write it till I get five __opinions.  
Last thing I want you guys to know is, don't get mad about the other language used in the fic. Read it, look at the bold number beside it and then scroll to the bottom of the page for a Translation Notes. _

**_Now... Have fun reading and try not to cry.  
_****_Creative! ;D_**

* * *

The landing bay doors opened with as much silence as they could, steel still grinding against steel, as the bioship entered and prepared to land. The Team had been entirely silent the flight home, only their breaths and ever-constant heartbeats showing that the immobile figures were indeed alive. Even Kid Flash remained silent, which had stunned the more jovial members of the Team after they attempted to joke with the speedster. A tremor shook through the red organic ship as it landed. The Team saw no mentors awaiting them, though they knew they had been found out by Batman. A collective shiver filled the air as it traced down the apprehensive heroes' spines.

With slow cautious movements the Team members began filtering through the door. First Rocket as she coaxed an almost crying Miss Martian; followed by two slightly disheartened archers and a very disappointed Bumblebee grumbling with Jaime. Only Aqualad, Kid and Batgirl remained. The leader looked over the two, each at opposite ends of the ship and with expressions of striking contrast that as day comes from the light of day, so does night with it's darker shadows. Kid's naturally joking-suited face seemed to be riddled with the sourness of anger and sharpness as he watched Batgirl. With a sudden swift movement she stood and walked out of the ship, her head in a position caught between being held high and proudly, and hung low in defeat and shame.

Concern crossed Kaldur'ahm's expressive face before he turned to the remaining teammate who still sat in his chair, probably because he could not stand alone. The Atlantean walked over to his friend, watching the soured speedster carefully so as not to aggravate the apparently foul mood that had come upon him. Though as soon as Batgirl was no longer within sight, and hearing range Aqualad thought, Kid Flash lost a dab of the anger riddling his face. When Aqualad halted at his friend's side he put a hand calmly on Wally's shoulder. Glazed forest green eyes lifted to meet the concerned expression Kaldur sported. The speedster contemplated flashing his trademark devilish smile or a passive grin. Both were bound to fail and look more like grimaces then actual smiles of sorts, but they were the only way that he could try to mask everything. The pain, the hurt, the worry, the anger that all rolled around in his gut. Kid couldn't show all that, not in front of anyone. Sure, they were his friends. But if he wanted to help find his best friend then the speedster had to not let them see how badly he was actually taking in everything.

Kid's face hardened with determination as he gripped the arms of his seat and lifted himself out of it. He kept his left leg off of the ground, barely a centimeter but enough that no weight was on it at all, as he steadied himself and balanced. He was careful to keep an airy mask on, not the stoic one that he had learned from hanging around all of the Bats. Him putting on that kind of a mask would be just as much a sign as not wearing one at all. Kid took a cautious step forward, alert to the pain shooting through his leg and the way that his knee almost gave out beneath him again. He almost cursed his healing. The Team had taken the collar off him after the battle, allowing his speed healing to set in. It was taking longer than it should have though, maybe because there were so many injuries, maybe because the injuries were so bad, maybe because there wasn't enough fuel inside the speedster for it to work efficiently. All Kid knew was that his knee was still hurting.

He ground his teeth together as he took another limping step, trying to move fast enough to hide the limp, though only making it more noticeable. He made a point of ignoring Kaldur's unhidden concern as he walked straight for the door. He made his way down the bioships ramp with more measured steps than usual, trying to keep his mind off of the pain that seemed to shoot from his knee with every step.

Once on solid concrete Kid stopped for a few seconds looking around at the faces of the Team around him. They were all riddled with sadness and disappointment, worry flashing across the ones that looked back at him. A falsely-playful remark tickled the tip of Kid's tongue as he prepared to wipe the worry from their faces, though cut short by the ever-horrid timing of the Dark Knight.

"Team, report to mission room. You have some explaining to do."

A collective sigh escaped everyone, except Wally who was just slightly surprised to hear Batman's voice, though at the same time strangely relieved. The Team knew that going against Batman's orders was stupid and that they would have consequences, but they hadn't cared. Now it was catching up with them.

The group turned and began to make their way to the mission room, huddling closer and closer as they walked. Kid hung back from the group, not wanting to accidentally trip or have his leg buckle where everyone would see. Nor have the more observant members of the group see the twitches of his face when his knee popped and clicked with every step. Something was definitely wrong with his knee, and for a speedster that was the worst place to injure.

The Team quickly arrived at the mission room, a collectively agreed to silence having settled over them as they entered. Anxious eyes darted around, proteges looking for their mentors in the group of Leaguers that had gathered in Mount Justice's mission room as they filtered into the room. Having lagged behind the team to favor his leg, Kid ducked in at the last minute. It took him a minute to realize that his own mentor wasn't there. As Kid looked around the room at his teammates and their mentors the youthful speedster couldn't help but feel a little relieved that his mentor wasn't amongst the seemingly distraught Leaguers.

Only Aqualad, Kid Flash and Batgirl didn't sway under the mentors' questioning and weighty gazes, though Batgirl because she couldn't possibly look any more dejected than she did while holding onto her strong and stubborn demeanor. They even managed to retain their air of strength and semblance of confidence as Batman lectured them about safety and that when the League gives orders, they expect them to be followed; and mostly ignoring when the other Leaguers would interject their own spiel to the Team about being more responsible, more thoughtful and less reckless in their actions, despite the good intent. Not one of the three leading protege's flinched during the speeches, ignoring the sometimes seemingly pointed jabs at them to get the Atlantean, speedster and bat to understand what was being said. However the entire team visibly flinched at Batman's question.

"Where is Nightwing?"

A strained silence fell on the room as the Team all shared a pained glance, passing off the duty of telling the most dangerous man in the room why his protege was not standing, or more likely would've been sitting, with them. It came down to Kid, Batgirl and Aqualad. A disheartened sigh fled from the Atlantean as he took barely a half-step forward and brought his eyes up to meet Batman's dead-locking gaze. A second of panicked hesitation stopped Aqualad as he clenched his fists at his side, steeling himself to speak the answer.

"We were unable to retrieve him during our self-assigned mission. We were foolish in our rash actions and did not fully know what our enemies had planned, nor their resources-"  
"Basically, we were doing great against the Joker and his little clubhouse-freaks until an unannounced player came onto the field. We were blindsided and couldn't risk them killing him, so we surrendered and they walked away, unharmed and untracked." Roy snorted as he glared pointedly at Aqualad.  
"Roy." A hushed, annoyed hiss rung in the room.

The red archer turned his head to look at his green clad partner, who was glaring cautionary daggers with her dark gray eyes. A disgruntled mumble escaped Roy, but he said no more as Aqualad continued.

"Bluntly stated, but accurate. We were forced to surrender our weapons and after some ensuing events the enemy escaped, managing to retain Nightwing in the process of their escape."

"What events?" The chilling tone sending shivers down even the cold-weathered Atlantean's spine.

As Aqualad opened his mouth to answer he was cut off by not a snarking tone but a hesitant one.

"E-events related to some of my actions," Batgirl kept her gaze on the floor as she desperately tried to avoid the harsh looking slits of Batman's cowl that she knew were hiding a now disbelieving and critical look.

The words of the fourth Batman protege echoed around the room, shock rippling through the room and showing on the faces of the mentors, and the team members who hadn't come along. The emotion spilling onto the visible portion of Batgirl's face was more than most of the gathered heroes had ever seen present on the face of a Batman protege.

The silence that followed her words worried Batgirl slightly, making her lift her eyes from the floor to attempt to read the undoubtedly infallible mask her mentor always wore. To Batgirl's unseeable dismay she managed to pick out emotions on the visible portion of her mentor's face, though not many and the one's she was able to see were probably because she'd been seeing them everywhere for the last few hours. A nearly invisible twitch was the only movement Batman needed to do for Batgirl to prepare to elaborate. She sucked in a deep steadying breath and opened her mouth only for the clattering echos of doors clanging open and forceful whoosh of wind interrupt her.

"Are you kidding me, Batman? You guys all gather here to wait for them to get back, and you don't even so much as send me a text? You could've at least tried to make it seem like you weren't trying to keep me out of the loop! I mean for God's sake, if those kids manage to bring back both Nightwing and Kid I want to be the first person that kid sees when he steps, gets rolled, limps, or whatever he does move after they find him, off that ship. I don't care about clouded judgement, I'm his mentor, his uncle! I've got a right to be here-"  
"Flash! You're speed talking, we can't understand a word. And since you're most likely going on about how we didn't tell you that we were gathering, look behind you." Canary pointed out calmly as she gestured to the Team.

The red-suited speedster turned slowly, for him at least, and looked at the group of young heroes. His expression flashed between different ones faster than any of the people around him could decipher. Before they could blink the red-suited hero had speeded over to his nephew and was squeezing the air from the boy's lungs with a quick, yet bone-crushing, hug.

"Don't you ever do that again. You hear me? Your mother and aunt were frantic monsters! You left your father and I with nervous wrecks that wouldn't stop coming up with the worse possibilities, not to mention making two of the most powerful women I know start issuing threats to each member of the League and Team, most notably a death threat to yours truly. I swear to you, Wallace Rudolph West, that if you ever get caught by supervillains again I will personally save you only to throw you to the she-wolves of the West-Allen family. Understood?"

To the non-speedsters of the room Flash had been moving his mouth with only blurred and high pitched words coming from him. Flash spoke his last sentence slowly, which caused Kid to blush with embarrassment at his full name being heard by everyone. A barely stifled snicker escaped Artemis as she stood not too far away from the two speedsters. Wally let out a loud groan as he face-palmed while glaring at his uncle.

"Seriously, Barry? I manage to keep her from finding that out for two years, and you go and blow it at a time like this?"

"Sorry kid, but you kind of deserve it for making us that worried."

Wally began his typical over-reactive drama-queen antics, causing Artemis only to snicker more. A soft, but quick, jab at her ribs from Roy silenced her sniggering. She turned her head to look up at him, her question plain on her face when she saw his. He didn't appear the least bit amused. Worried questions floated into Artemis' mind as she wondered why Roy wouldn't have at least a smirk on his face at hearing the slightly outrageous full name of one of his oldest friends. Wait. Artemis thought to herself. Roy and Wally had known each other before the Team even started, they were old-almost-best-friends.

"I'm getting the impression that you already knew Rudolph wasn't just the name of a red nosed reindeer, but a certain redheaded speedster." Artemis whispered incredulously low enough so only Roy heard her.

"Do not disgrace the reindeer. " The red archer whispered sternly to his partner.

"What are you, Kris Kringle's reindeer rights police? Besides, it was more disgracing the name Ru- I see your point. That'd be mean to the reindeer and make him feel bad." Artemis said as she leaned more on the table, a slightly pensive look on her face.

At that Roy cracked a hint of a smile with a single jostle of his shoulders from a chuckle before the gathered heroes' focus, Leaguers and Team members alike, was drawn back to the debriefing occurring by a harsh shout and flutter of papers as a barely indistinguishable red-yellow blur shot out the opened doors.

"Kid!" Flash shouted in vain after the blur before turning to face Batman, a harshness on his face that seemed ill-suited. "What were you thinking? Couldn't you have breached the subject with a little more tact?"

"What time he spends holding back, is time that Nightwing spends captive. Do you think he wants his friends blood on his hands?"

"I doubt he does but if his reaction is anything to go by, then I'd say he needs some more time. Hammering him with questions about what happened is not going to make him open up, it's going to make him talk about it less! He's just a kid. It's in his superhero name for Heaven's sake! KID Flash. In this situation you have to treat him like one, to an extent. He's sensitive to things like this."

"He fights crime and supervillains on a semi-regular basis. He should be prepared for what comes on the job." The brow lines of both heroes' masks furrowed.

"He's not one of your machine-like proteges, he's my family!"

"Your closeness to the matter is clouding your judgement."

"No, Batman, I think it's the other way around," a softer toned voice said.

The sharp click of heels echoed in the stunned-silent room as Canary stepped between the two arguing heroes, gently pushing their raised arms down to their sides. She turned her blue eyes from one hero to the other, giving them both glares that told them to calm down and back off. When Flash let out an annoyed but complying sigh and relaxed his stance, Canary focused again on Batman.

"My judgement is not clouded." The cowled crusader stated plainly, his voice devoid emotion.

"Yes it is." Canary raised a hand and set it gently on Batman's shoulder, ignoring the whispers behind her and the glare from the Dark Knight. "You just started pretty much villain-style interrogating the biggest possible lead we have to Nightwing, not to mention our clue to his most recent state of being and direct link to what happened there. He's not a robot, none of us are." She paused briefly to get him to look at her eyes. "Not even you, no matter how much you try to be. Batman, I understand that you're Batman; that you're not supposed to show feelings or emotions, especially when they run so high, but right now we can't afford to have a robot. We're going to find Nightwing. There won't be a repeat, as far as we can tell and from what Kid Flash did tell us, he's not with the Joker anymore. But, to find him, we need Kid to talk and he won't do that if you go at him like a battering ram. For once, I'm inclined to say that Flash is right in this field. You need to give the boy time."

Several silent seconds passed before Batman let out a resigned snort, closing his eyes for a split second in a fleeting sign of submitting defeat before lifting an arm and pushing Canary's arm aside as he began walking out of the room, stalling at the harsh ring of the computer.

"Recognized, Kid Flash B-03."

The heroes all turned to Barry who was now beginning to look panicked again at the possibility of his nephew either getting hurt more or getting maimed by the 'she-wolves of the West-Allen family.' A collective groan circled through the room as Flash started pacing and speed-talking to himself, trying to figure out where Wally would go. Canary told Batman to take Batgirl, who had sat down alone in a corner, and focus on repairing his own solider before going after Flash's. Soon after the two Gothamites left, Canary dismissed the Team.

They gathered in the living room area, planning on trying to figure out where their teammate would go; well, all the Team except Roy who went down to the shooting range to avoid Kaldur. Artemis went with Roy after saying apologetically, "Someone has to make sure the idiot doesn't shoot himself in the foot." Conner held M'gann in his arms, her fists clutching tightly to his black tee-shirt as she listened to the conversation, though more on a telepathic level than actually hearing it. Quickly after Roy and Artemis had left, Conner did too, calling over his shoulder, "I think M'gann needs some rest." Left in the living room were Kaldur, Raquel, Garfield, Jaime and Cassie, all of which were sitting around the middle table.

"Well... Aren't we going to try to find Kid?" Garfield asked as he sat on the back of a chair.

"No, we are not. It would be unwise to attempt leaving the cave again. And I do not believe that Kid is in danger of being recaptured, as it would have been easy for the villains to take him during the battle at the warehouse. Instead, however, they took Nightiwing. I believe that Nightwing was their target all along and Kid only a minor plus to their operation." Kaldur explained looking up from the book in his lap.

"Not to mention that Wally can take care of himself. Not like the guy is going to purposefully get himself into trouble. " Raquel said, looking around as if suddenly the meaning of the words she'd said hit her. "Right?"

"I do not believe so, Raquel. I do not believe so..." Kaldur said, voice drifting off as he refocused on his book.

The people gathered around the living room soon branched off entirely. Garfield went to find M'gann and Conner, hoping to life his adoptive sister's spirits and amuse himself at the same time. Jaime left to go home for the day, saying that his folks were probably already worried. Cassie hung around the living room awkwardly as Raquel and Kaldur settled into their own world before going to her room.

Raquel shifted slightly on the couch, leaning into Kaldur more as she brushed her fingers over the webbing on his hands. She turned her head to look up at him.

Do you really think he's gonna be okay?' Her voice came out oddly soft as the question hung in the air.

The Atlantean shut his book with his free hand before reaching up and pinching the bridge of his nose as he closed his eyes. A weighty sigh passed through his parted lips, conveying the weight he felt rested on his shoulders. His head tilted slightly and his eyes opened part-way as he looked back at her.

"To be honest, I'm not entirely certain."

Raquel's grip around his hand tightened as she leaned even more into him and said, "That means he will be, cause the one thing Wally does best is defy expectations. As long as they don't revolve around him not eating the last bit of food within the surrounding four square-miles."

Half-chuckles filled the gloomy air that settled upon the mountain, only adding to the morose atmosphere. No one in the mountain seemed very alive, and no one really wanted to. In the secret of their own worlds, each member was silently and regretfully thankful for Wally's absence while simultaneously mourning the non-existence of the Team's ray of sunshine in the darkest gloom. As always the cave's atmosphere seemed to mirror the weather outside it, and as the Team members moped each to themselves, Happy Harbor's skies clouded with a raging storm, pouring rain onto the streets as if lamenting the loss of something precious to the heart; something like the sound of fun.

* * *

The dull roar of engines and the one-pitch-too-high mad cackles of a hauntingly familiar voice were what woke Nightwing from his pained slumber. He felt the entirety of his body ache, from the tip of his toes to the crown of his head. Immediately he registered what he could of his surroundings and tried to piece together what he could of the last bit of time. His skin felt the disturbing cool of the metal beneath him despite his normally heat-insulated suit; his auditory sense perceiving the too-quiet atmosphere notwithstanding odd thrumming of some sort of engine or machine in his ear; his eyes registered the blackness of the room as they adjusted to the new lack of light, contrasting to the blinding prison of the Joker. Of one thing he was certain, he was no longer captive to the Joker, or at least to the Joker alone. Snapping from his detective process as he heard the loud, rough steps of metal boots on the apparently metal floors, Nightwing attempted to get to his feet. The black clad hero was quickly reminded by his body of the torture and pain he had endured and prevented the acrobat from moving more than an inch.

Just as a heavy door ground open with a vicious shriek Nightwing let out an involuntary moan. He was at least right about one thing, the Joker wasn't the only one he remembered. The spoty fragments of memories fitting together as the downed hero looked at the doorway, now flooded with light and casting shadows on the figure's obstructing it, hiding their faces. But the trained hero needed no more information than the light's brilliant reflection off of the orange and black mask as well as the deep purple suit, or the maddening chortles in the stagnant air, drowning the quiet victorious chuckles of Deathstroke.

But the trained hero needed no more information than the light's brilliant reflection off of the orange and black mask as well as the deep purple suit, or the maddening chortles in the stagnant air, drowning the quiet victorious chuckles of Deathstroke.

"Our little biddy is awake." A snide chuckle came to life as the purple figure stepped forward, only to be stopped by a large hand shooting forward suddenly.

"You broke our arrangement. I told you he was not to be harmed, and yet he can barely move due to his injuries."

"Relax a little Willy. He's still breathing. Not like you need more than that for what your boys are planning." Joker cackled.

"Quiet, clown. He can still hear, and we wouldn't want to spook the poor, little bird. He might be frightened enough to try something idiotic," Deathstroke warned as he watched Joker.

"I just wanna see him squirm. I promise I won't rough him up," Joker wailed pleadingly.

Nightwing cringed as heard that unstable voice filled with such sadistic pleading, his body shuddering in pain. He looked away from the door as Deathstroke grunted in agreement. The purple clad clown advanced, the shadows on his face receding as he left behind the still-bright light of the doorway. Deathstroke remained in the doorway, leaning on the metal frame as he watched Joker and Nightwing carefully, as if they were a dangerous pair of cats that would kill each other at the first chance. He wasn't too far off. If he could move more than an inch without his body screaming in pain, then Nightwing would've already pinned both of the villains.

A gentle hand touched Nightwing's shoulder, startling the hero. He turned his head to look at the hand, trying to glare daggers through his torn mask. He lifted his near-deadly gaze up to the disturbed acid green eyes of his previous captor. Something in those eyes did not seem right to Nightwing as he looked into them. There was the usual and expected traits of insanity, but floating around in them now was some sort of extra-inhuman glint of derangement. It sent an involuntary shudder through Nightwing, causing him to wince as his body moved.

"Aw, what's wrong baby robin? Something you need your maică to kiss and make better?" Joker asked with a pouting look of concern etched onto his face.

Nightwing's nostrils flared as he hardened his face and a growl rose in his throat. His fists clenched at his side as he closed his eyes tight, trying to control the boiling in his blood. Nightwing's chest heaved in anger as he attempted to push himself off the ground and shake off Joker's hand. The pain flying through his body only served to fuel the rage in his eyes and further the explosion inside Nightwing.

"Cum îndrăznești! Ai dezastruos, scuză patetică a unui clovn! O să te omor! Jur, Joker!" Nightwing shouted, slipping back into his native tongue easily in his anger.

Joker ignored Nightwing's words, replacing his hand on the boy's shoulder. The black-clad hero tried to shake off the clown's hand again, but the feeble movement that took so much out of Nightwing didn't do much at all. Joker patted Nightwing's shoulder gently, but not gently enough as pain sprang to life at the hurting joint.

"Too bad mami and tati aren't here right now. But don't worry, Unci J'll take good care of you." Joker was smiling devilishly as he spoke and dragged a soft hand up and down Nightwing's back in a mock-comforting gesture.

Nightwing growled in defiance against the twinge of fear that bubbled to life in his stomach. He refused to let anything the maladjusted clown had done or said make him afraid. He was the oldest protege of the Batman and had watched his family die in front of him, he could handle a little bit of quality time with a psychotic clown.

"But who will take care of you when I'm done with you?" Nightwing asked with a taunting growl to his defiant voice that matched his dazed and challenging smirk.

Wing let out a brief shout of pain as his head was wrenched backwards by the hair. He tried to pull away, succeeding only because Joker's hand opened and released the black locks. Nightwing grunted as he stopped his roll to pull his legs beneath him, ignoring the fresh pain that caused his muscles and the pulling twinges of his scabs about to break. The nerve-shattering pain from his body's protests didn't stop as Nightwing panted and pushed himself up, lifting his chest and torso off the ground, before a harsh hand grabbed the back of his costume. A sudden jerk unbalanced the precarious stability of Nightwing's arms and would have sent the hero to a face-first meeting with the ground had the hand kept it's grip on the collar of the costume and proceeded to yank Nightwing to a sitting position.

"Don't you dare disrespect me, hero-boy. We don't disrespect our elders here." Joker cackled evilly as he glowered at Nightwing, bending down so that their eyes were level.  
"You are not my elder. You are a fake clown with nothing inside worth anything, and let's be honest here: who would ever think that your face is worth anything?" Nightwing spluttered as he looked right back at Joker through his mask.

A gloved hand lifted from Joker's side and pulled back, preparing to swing forward when Deathstroke made his presence remembered.

"Watch it, clown."

The diabolic clown tore his sickly gaze away from the hero dangling in his grasp to the almost ticked-off supervillain, an angry pout on his face. Deathstroke was unmoved by the disturbing sight of a pouting Joker, only shaking his head.

"But he needs to be taught a lesson, otherwise he won't listen to us." Joker held tightly onto Nightwing, having to keep the unbalanced hero from falling face first again.

"I assure you, chucklehead," his silky voice had a rough edge to it, "the time will come for you to have your 'fun'. However, he still has use to us." He uncrossed his arms and stalked closer to the two. "Besides," his voice became mocking, "You wouldn't want to end up in a body bag, now, would you?"

Joker's eyes narrowed as his disturbingly jolly face hardened at the threat. His grip on Nightwing's collar tightened before slackening completely and letting the hero fall to the floor. Nightwing's hands shot out instinctively to try and break the fall, but did nothing. He grunted as he hit the ground with a loud, dull thud. He locked his jaw shut to keep from voicing any more of his pain. The fresh fire in his right arm was almost too much and the protege had to focus intently on his breathing to ignore the pulsing throb. He barely heard Deathstroke and Joker as they argued, despite their raised voices and attention-drawing tones.

"...He is the last piece of a puzzle created long before you were brought into this scheme... You wouldn't understand... We have had to work to get all the others."

"... But, Willy, important or not a kid's got to have some playtime."  
"Not your funtime, Joker."  
"But I want my jollies."  
"Haven't you ever heard the saying, 'Good things come to those who wait'? My people require him alive and primarily whole. They will take what they need for Project Override. And then, you can have him to get your 'jollies', should he still be lucid enough for you."

Nightwing managed to shove down the fire in his arm enough to feel his stomach first catch in his throat at the thought of being a forced part of a villain's scheme, and then plummet faster than a meteor at the thought of being stuck with Joker. His body was barely withstanding the beatings, and when the clown exhausted his physical playing material he was sure to move on to more damageable materials. Nightwing refocused on the villains words when Joker let out a painfully high-pitched squealing cackle.

"Willy, you've got too much of an ego. The Boy Wonder won't lose his mind with you. That damn Bat's got him trained too well," Joker grinned as he leaned down to look at Nightwing for a second before turning his acidic gaze back to Deathstroke and a hand to Nightwing's shoulder. He started to chuckle quietly before raising his voice to an audible volume to Deathstroke, "Though, that makes it so much funner for me to play with, his brain being so unscrambleable."

Deathstroke didn't answer as he swept forward, a rough hand grabbing Joker's purple suit. With a calm yet forceful movement Deathstroke yanked Joker back to an upright standing position, making the green haired man stumble a few steps backwards. Joker regained his composure as he straightened his suit and looked at Deathstroke without the least bit of trepidation. _That clown is crazier than I thought_. Nightwing thought as he watched Joker and Deathstroke stare each other down, neither giving an inch as acid eyes connected with a single ice blue one. Joker suddenly began to cackle and chortle, his body near convulsing as he laughed, breaking the statuesque match. Deathstroke ignored the practically hacking clown and walked again towards the door, his metal boots clicking heavily as he walked.

Joker stumbled to the wall and leaned on it as he tried to reign in his laughing-coughs. Nightwing kept an eye on the only remaining figure in the room with him; watching the clown's back rise; watching the clown's back rise and fall with heaving movements despite the attempts to regain his calm composure. The clown stayed, forehead almost against the wall, for several minutes before staggering over to Nightwing again. His breathing a whispy wheeze as he bent down so that he was hardly an inch away from Nightwing's ear, and placed a hand warningly on the hurt shoulder.

"Don't worry 'bout old Willy, kiddo." Nightwing felt Joker's hot breath on his ear and cringed, only for the clown to squeeze his shoulder, causing the hero to groan in pain. Nightwing turned his head to look up at Joker through his mask with one eye, glaring at Joker. The clown continued whispering, "He may not be much fun, but once you help him with his little project then you'll get to come home with Unci J and we'll have all the fun in the world; you, me and tanti Ivy. Just you wait kiddo, you'll have the time of your life."

And with as much warning as he had started Joker ended his whispered speech and left the steel room, leaving Nightwing silent as ever.

Though he appeared generally outwardly unmoved by the Joker's words, to the close observer Nightwing was panicking and afraid. His breaths were quicker, pulse frantic and muscles in his hands and back stiff. The hero pushed himself onto his side, ignoring his ribs for the time being as he stared blankly at the wall and tried to ignore the turmoil stirred by Joker's words. He would be back in the same position as before, with little to no chance of getting out because his team had already come. _At least they got Wally out. He was more important to get out of here_. Nightwing thought as he relaxed a bit, rolling onto his back to stare at the ceiling. Yes, Nightwing was slightly terrified of being put in almost the same situation as his late-younger adopted brother and being captive to a villain planning to use him for something, but Dick was relieved that his best friend was safe and wouldn't have to suffer through torture more than he already had.

"I promise, Walls. I promise I'll hold on till the end, but that may not be too much longer, bro." Dick chuckled to himself, hissing slightly at the pain from his ribs. Dick would do anything to protect Wally, and pushing through to hold on till the end of his sanity was the last way Dick could protect the speedster from the after-math of the villains plans with him.

Bros then, now and till the end; and bros protect one another.

* * *

**TranslationNotes  
**

_"Cum îndrăznești! Ai dezastruos, scuză patetică a unui clovn! O să te omor! Jur, Joker!":_ "How dare you! You disastrous, pathetic excuse of a clown! I'll Kill you I swear, Joker!"  
_mami:_Mother  
_tati: _Father_  
tanti: _aunt_  
unci: _uncle_  
_


	11. Road of the Broken

_**Author'sNote**_

_Look guys i'm so sorry about the delay and everything. Life came up on both my end and on my beta's. So it took a while but, you're going to like the results. So, just an FYI, the next four chapters (this one included) will be set simultaneously. _

_So, without further a due. The Chapter!_

_Luffles,_  
_Creative _

* * *

Down a shadowed alleyway in New York City sat a crying figure, clothes and form obscured in darkness. Shoulders shook, and soft sounds of despair burst sporadically to life as the figure lifted his head and locked his deep green eyes onto the graffitied wall in front of him. Freckled cheeks were streaked with tear tracks that cut through the layer of grime that had settled there. Gloved hands gripped tightly to the yellow spandex hidden by the shadows as the boy let out another choked sound, trying to speak through the emotions swamping over him.

Wally had stormed out of the cave in an attempt to escape Batman's questions, avoiding the moment when he would have to face the fact that his best friend wasn't there because of his idiocy. If he'd been just a minute faster, just a few steps closer, then Dick wouldn't have gotten so banged up the first time around, and the baddies wouldn't have had a second shot at Batman's protege.

A frustrated groan floated into the chilly alley air as Wally knocked his head back against the brick wall, lifting his eyes up to the white moon. His naturally joyous and youthful face, typically seen sporting a smile, was obscured by the grit and grime covering red blotchy cheeks and the despairing expression lingering there. The silvery moon glowed dimly above the enormous city, its weak, pale light losing all its mystical wonder as it spiraled to the ground. It was no wonder that when Wally looked at the moon he felt a sense of startling despondency.

He let out a sorrowed chuckle as he raised a hand towards the glowing sphere, shaking his head. His green eyes were devoid of any frivolous luster they normally held, instead having become flooded with layers of grief and anger that only fueled his sense of guilt. A dejected sigh flew from Wally's lips as he pulled his right knee up to his chest, wrapping his arms around it tightly in an attempt to comfort himself.

It wasn't his fault Nightwing had been kidnapped in the first place. If his friend had been more careful then Wally wouldn't have been distracted on the mission, and he wouldn't have been caught. Or maybe he would have gotten caught, but then at the very least their positions would be reversed. Wally snorted as his thoughts bounced back around to how he should have done better, he should have tried harder, done something more to protect and get his teammate out of harms way. But, as always, the humble part of the speedster would win it's voice and say that he had done the best he could have under the circumstances, and to be proud that he did what he had. He had tried to protect his friend. He fought off three villains at once, injuring his knee in the process, and yet he still had kept fighting.

There wasn't anything that he could have done differently.

And yet, he felt like he should have done something more. But, it's not like he, Wally West, could pull off a miracle. He may be able to run at the speed of sound but he wasn't a miracle-worker. That wasn't a speedster's job definition, though he was pretty sure that was in the description of becoming a Bat protege. They always seemed to be pulling off miracles, whether it be dodging bullets or taking down meta's that were mountains compared to the skilled martial artists and acrobats.

Dread trickled through Wally, settling in his stomach like a rock, as he imagined what the Joker would do to Dick, what he had tried during those little bits of time when all the villains had taunted him and Dick within the confines of their room-like cell. There was only so much the Joker could do to Dick in the teen's current condition, and what the crazed clown could do was much more terrifying to Wally than anything he had heard the bird go through over the years.

An irregular, almost broken sounding chuckle burst forth from Wally as the speedster let his eyes close slightly as a memory of Dick and him, before they had formed the Team, leapt to his mind. They were the silliest pair. While Batman and Flash were a well-oiled and quite remarkable superhero duo, Robin and Kid Flash were not. Wally pulled a hand through his hair, feeling for the small bump that hid there; marking where a knife had grazed him.

Wally almost laughed to himself as his eyes remained closed, lost in memories of better times. The memory of the near coma-inducing smell from the first time Wally had smelled Alfred's cookies, accompanied by that trademark smile and cackle from Robin, swamped Wally's senses before fading into his and Robin's first sparring match. A broken smile tugged at Wally's dry lips as he recalled his sudden meeting with the floor when Robin pinned him in seconds. The younger boy's striking laugh stayed as Wally's mind drifted to darkness, blowing into the first mission the two boys had joined together with Aqualad and made their first mark as heroes. A pained chuckle escaped Wally as he recalled the sore high-five exchanged. The barely-there smile dropped as his mind remembered the bruises that had lingered for hours, reminding him of the stinging of the Cadmus cloning pods. The searing, mind-numbingly stinging pain that was so similar to the shocks emitted by the inhibitor-collars like the one he had been forced to wear while captured.

Wally's body shook as a spasm tore through it

"No. " Wally growled at himself as his fists tightened around his dirtied locks and pulled hard, in an attempt to refocus himself on the present world.

His chest looked as if it wasn't moving, his breaths coming in and out at near super speed. Green eyes flashed open as Wally tried to focus on something around him that would tell his brain that he wasn't in danger, that he was safe. But that only made his body fall more out of control when it remembered how and why he was safe; because his best friend was still trapped, still being subjected to that torture and worse, because of the Team's mistakes-no, because of Batgirl's mistakes.

The speedster's heart rate sped up. His molecules began to vibrate, and his brain began to think faster than he had ever experienced, jumping from thought to memory to thought and all around before a clock even ticked a millisecond. Wally's freckled skin shook and shivered as it vibrated. A fine sheen of cold sweat leapt to life all over his body, making the heat from vibrating only feel worse. Wally was having trouble breathing. His body was betraying him, not listening when he told it calm down. Wally fought to swallow the growing lump of panic that had settled in his throat. He tried to focus his eyes on a single point, attempting to distinguish something from the darkness. The speedster barely heard anything above the frantic pounding of the blood in his ears, though he thought he heard footsteps coming towards him.

Automatic instincts kicked in as he pushed off the ground and stood before any normal person could blink, despite his leg hurting. His back leaned heavily against the wall behind him for support as he tried to find any indication as of the person in front of him. Wally knew he should remember the face, the light eyes, the black hair and the almost sexy outfit the person wore... But Wally's mind just couldn't remember, too deeply lost in the thrall of panic.

The speedster's green eyes watched the black haired girl's lips move, though he couldn't hear anything she said. A strange feeling came over him. His eyelids began to tug downward, system to slow down and act sluggish...

"No!" He shouted, his hands lifting to scrunch around his hair.

Wally's body fought hard against the fog that seemed to fall over him. His heart raced more and his mind went into an even more frenzied state. Wally didn't see as the girl reached to touch his forearm, only feeling the cool hand against his vibrating skin. He would have jerked away, but the wall behind him prevented that. Wally cracked his eyes open as the touch on his arm began to move soothingly up and down it, in rhythmic circles. The girl's lips were moving again, slower this time and in a recognizable pattern.

_It's okay Wally, I'm a friend. You're fine._ Wally read off her lips. Either that or, _Oregon wakes up to marching bands this time._

The speedster didn't move, his brain trying to decide what to do as it frantically tried to place the face in his memories... such a familiar face.

The pounding in his ears started to drop in intensity as Wally began to pick out the strangely melodic tone of her voice. Anxiety-filled green eyes locked with calming baby blues. The rough, uneven rise and fall of the speedster's chest hardly slowed, though it was enough to let his body process the incoming air. The even-timed movements along his arm aided Wally in trying to slow his breaths to a reasonable rate. The calming feeling that crept over the speedster was almost welcome as his mind recalled a name to place with the face in front of him.

"Zee." He said, trying to force his wide-open eyes to blink.

The warm smile that spread over the girl's lips was the answer to his single word. She lifted her hand away as she closed her eyes, a ghost of a pained expression flitting to her face as Wally instinctively let out a whimpering noise. Wally watched as Zatanna's lips moved, unable to read their words.

A second wave of a fog-like calming feeling began to creep over him, and the instinct to fight it leapt to life again. But the quickly replaced hand and a startlingly fast spoken sentence set Wally at ease in seconds.

"Easy Wall-man." She said, her eyes looking straight into his.

Wally felt his body slow down more, felt his control over his powers return to him. The vibrating of his skin slowing till it ceased; the erratic and speeding beat of his heart slowing to a closer-to-normal rate. The encouraging smile that flowed onto Zee's face helped Wally keep trying to slow his abnormal panicking state down.

Then Zatanna stopped her hand's soothing circles and brought it up to grasp one of Wally's hair-filled fists. She gently pried it off of the red locks and brought it down to hang at Wally's side. She did the same with the second fist before bringing her hands back in front of her and clasping them together.

She paused a moment, opening her eyes which she had briefly closed.

"Do you trust me?" She asked.

Wally hesitated before nodding stiffly.

Zatanna closed her eyes again and focused for a brief second before speaking, "Llew peels dna ecaep dnif."

Wally's hand shot forward as he felt a surprising and somewhat, at the moment, unnerving fuzziness float over him. He squeezed her hands as he fought to keep the panic down. Zee freed one of her hands and put it over his, rubbing it slowly like she had his arm.

"It's okay Wall-man. Just sleep, it'll be fine." Zee whispered.

Wally's breathing slowed forcefully as he tried to make himself succumb to the fog creeping over him. A whispering sigh escaped him as he felt the familiar black touch of sleep swirl around his vision. Wally squeezed Zee's hand tighter as he felt the black shores of sleep try to wrestle his racing mind, raging heart-beat and uneven breathing into submission. The last fuzzy image that Wally registered before falling completely under the spell of sleep was Zatanna glowing white, a heavenly white, as her lips moved in an undistinguishable pattern. Then warm blackness in all directions.

* * *

Zatanna stepped into the kitchen of her small New York flat. She grabbed an apple and tiptoed quietly as she could towards her living room. She smiled happily to herself as her steps made hardly more noise than a mouse, and considered calling up her friend to exclaim her joy before remembering that Barbara was put under 'Batman Lockdown' after the meeting. Zatanna sighed heavily. That meeting had not gone well. She was one of the few paying attention as Batman talked with Wally, and it was nothing pretty to see or hear. No matter how much Batman had raised his voice Wally barely spoke. The elder superhero had pushed and pushed as hard as he could to get information out of the young speedster. The Dark Knight's words became increasingly harsh and pointed, reaching the point where any person, besides Batman's proteges or someone who's spent a lot of time around Batman, would cave.

Wally didn't. The speedster seemed to barely notice the sometimes scathing, angered words of Batman. However, all dams have a breaking point, and Zatanna remembered the exact point when Wally broke; When Batman had accused him of not caring whether they got Nightwing back, that Wally was no better than the villains than that held and tortured the young black-clad hero.

Zatanna shuddered slightly as she recalled the murderous expression that had crossed the typically smiling face of the speedster. That had scared her more than anything, she thought; that the one person who could laugh off anything was suddenly looking more dangerous than the villains the Team faced. Then the look changed in second to a clouded look of pain. He said something too low for Zatanna to hear. She blinked and then Wally was speeding out the door, out of the cave, alone. Alone and angry, most likely at himself. The magician didn't notice as Batman and Flash had a go at each other; she didn't hear Canary calm them down or Batman leave. Only when the other Team members left did Zatanna notice that the Leaguers were looking at her, she left too.

She had gone back to her room at the cave, grabbing a few things before transporting home. There wasn't much she could have done at that moment, but she needed to find Wally before he got himself into even worse trouble; which knowing the speedster, and had he been himself, wouldn't have taken long at all.

A sudden harsh smack pulled Zatanna from memories of earlier in the day. She stopped against the doorway to her living room, pressing a hand against where a lump would likely be developing in the morning. She looked at the red haired boy on her couch. She felt her chest tighten as she looked at his face. It was covered in sweat, tears and all manner of dirt. Zatanna retreated back to the kitchen and grabbed a bowl from her cabinet and pulled a cloth from beneath the sink. With careful precision she filled the bowl with warm water before walking back to the living room. She sat on the arm rest of her couch, next to Wally's head, and placed the bowl on her lap. She dipped the cloth in the warm water before bringing it to the speedster's face. Gently as she could, Zatanna began to wipe off the grime and grit that had gathered there. She hoped that washing off reminders of Wally's recent experience would somehow erase them from his mind as well, letting the speedster bounce back into the jokey personality that fitted him so well. Slowly the dirt that had plastered itself to Wally's freckled skin began to melt away on the cloth, but what showed beneath was hardly any comfort to the young magician.

Purple, black and blue bruises flourished upon the pale skin, many surrounding cuts and scrapes. The more Zatanna washed off the dust and grit, the more heartbroken she became. Being a superhero, Zatanna saw her fair share of bruises and marks of beatings. What she saw on Wally's face wasn't the worst she'd ever seen, but she pictured that if these were the marks on his face... how badly was the rest of him hurt?

Zatanna dropped the cloth in her bowl of water, now a dingy grey shade, with a sigh. Seeing all the marks on his face from tears and the dirt and grime of fear induced sweat had made her think that wiping them away would make everything better, but now it looked worse. The magician took her hand from it's place in her lap cradling the bowl and lifted it towards Wally. Soft as a feather her fingertips touched his forehead, skimming over the smoother-than-before skin there before tracing their way down his nose, over his cheek, following his jaw line and halting at his chin. A sudden thought leapt to the forefront of the girl's mind, but her quickly retreating hand and sudden jump to standing put a halt to it. Wally was a friend; a friend who needed someone to count on and take care of him, not anything more and certainly nothing less.

Zatanna forced herself to walk out of the living room, still carrying her bowl. She walked straight to the kitchen, putting the bowl down in the sink. She reached forward to grasp to faucet, turned the hot water knob and paused as the water began pouring forth. She closed her eyes and inhaled the steam before grabbing hold of her countertop.

The last couple days had been hard on the Team. Everyone had been worried about Nightwing and Wally, thought the majority about Nightwing since he was the first to disappear, and the one with the mentor to worry about. When the Team had been talking about rescue plans she and only a couple other people put Wally first in the order. The other people probably because they cared about the speedster like family. Zatanna did too, but hearing his name being called as the latest super-villain abductee had awoken something in Zatanna that she didn't think was there before. Her heart had skipped a beat before thundering in her chest. Fear pounded through her veins in that instant before racing to help plan something.

A similar fear to that which had flooded her when she'd found him laying in the alley, covered in all matters of dirt and the most terrifying look of fear plastered on his face.

Zatanna lifted a hand from the counter to wipe it over her face. She had hardly recovered from the terrifying minutes she spent trying to calm down the speedster. She had no idea what had happened, but she knew that he had been scared. That made Zatanna the most uncomfortable. Wally was never scared. He would get nervous or make more and more lame jokes or attempts at clever quips, but never just didn't seem normal to see wide eyes, paled skin or a sheen of cold sweat on the speedster, and she couldn't get it out of her head.

A clatter drew her attention away from thoughts. She turned off the water and paused, listening for more. Another clatter coupled with a harsh string of speed-whispered words sent the magician flying from the room. Even with her hurried steps Zatanna felt too slow as she raced from her kitchen back to the living room, especially when she compared herself to it's occupant. She grabbed hold of the door frame as she skidded to a halt. Her blue eyes locked immediately on the yellow and red clad hero attempting to lift himself from the floor. Zatanna remembered in the alley that Wally had held himself bizarrely and had flinched, even when unconscious, when she had touched his left knee. Partly off the ground Wally looked over his shoulder at Zatanna. She saw his eyes widen and his entire body freeze up before his hand slipped from it's hold and he went crashing to the ground again. She winced when his pained grunt burst to life and flinched when she saw him twist around to get off of his left leg. When he grimaced and started to try rising up again, his form blurring more as he tried to speed through it, Zatanna stepped forward.

She stopped dead in her tracks as Wally's head snapped around and his eyes locked with hers. She was stunned to a halt, more than stopping out of fear, when she looked at his eyes; his luminescent green eyes so filled with fear and uncertainty, clouded over with pain and stuck in a place far away from the young magician's small New York flat.

"Wally, it's me," she said in hopes of him remembering the alley.

She saw no spark of recognition within the virescent depths. Then she looked closer and saw his eyes almost looking as if they were moving. Another layer of glistening sweat spread over the visible skin as she watched the flaring of his nostrils speed to a blurring pace.

Her stomach dropped as the freckles on his face went from blending in seamlessly to sanding out like roses in a field of snow, so bright against the paleness. He was scared again, terrified and panicking at the sight of her.

Carefully, with her hands raised in a show of non-violence or threat, Zatanna stepped back. Her heels clicked, what seemed to be noisily, on the floor of the silent room. All the young girl heard was the continuous hum that was Wally breathing and her own speeding heart. Her eyes watched Wally carefully, her own fear consuming the attempt at a placid look on her face.

"Wall-man, it's me; Zee." She said, her lips forcefully twitching upwards into a smile.

The calming tone of her voice did nothing as the teen before her continued to bear the same unfocused and terrified expression. A panicked sigh escaped Zatanna as she lifted a hand to her forehead and spun in a circle, trying to think through her own rising fear. Her friend didn't remember her, again! His mind too frazzled and scared to recall her face or voice, or even for her spells to work if this was a repeat of the alley.

Zatanna stopped, facing Wally once more, as she raised and clasped her hands before her. She could at least try the spells again, see if they would work. She shut her eyes and opened her mouth to begin.

"Nwod mlac dna ecaep dnif," she recited.

Her pale blue eyes blinked open, hoping to see a change in the speedster's demeanor. She got what she asked for, at least. The red-head was bent over himself, clutching his head and almost letting out an incoherent shout. The sudden memory of him fighting the calming spell in the alley came to mind as Zatanna ignored better judgment and rushed over. She slid to the ground right in front of him, reaching forward to take one of his hands. In less than a blink one of his hands had left his red hair and latched onto her wrist, pushing it away from him. His eyes lifted from their squinted gaze at the floor to glare angrily at Zatanna. For the first time that night a new kind of fear washed over the magician. She stayed in place, not even daring to move her lips to speak or breathe. Blue met green in a battle of dominant fear. Seconds passed in what seemed like eternity before Wally broke away and speed-scrambled to his feet, albeit shakily.

Zatanna stayed on the floor, watching Wally and attempting to recover from the wave of fear that swamped her. She watched Wally limp in a circle, his green eyes darting over to her with an air of frightened prey watching a wounded predator. She swallowed the lump that rose in her throat when she saw the flashes of pain that crossed the red-head's face.

She moved slightly, shifting her leg positions, as she kept a careful eye on his face. A brief look of even greater panic washed over him. _I can't do this alone._ She thought, biting her lower lip as she brought her hands together in front of her chest. She closed her eyes and whispered, "Wally with me, but something's up and I need your help; Zatanna.' HsalF eht to sdrow eht dens."

A tumult drew Zatanna's attention as her eyes snapped open. She immediately saw Wally half laying on the couch, his hand almost seeming to pass through it. The outlines of his form were blurred as Zatanna attempted to focus on them. The toll of her transporting magic and then the multiple calming spells was beginning to annoy the magician as she tried to stand, worry for her friend's safety over-powering her need for sleep by far more than she had ever thought possible.

She stopped behind Wally and touched a hand to his shoulder. Ignoring the bizarre sensation of vibration beneath, she kept it there. She gently squeezed it and pulled to get him to turn around, hoping that in the very least he would do that. She was right, the speedster turned around; however it was faster than she'd expected, having forgotten that Wally couldn't control his powers. She was jerked onto the couch, her arms flying as she tried to grip onto something. Her hand found Wally's arm and latched on before dragging him down too. Any other time, Wally landing in Zatanna's lap on the couch and she would have been madly blushing and laughing insanely. But now... Zatanna only felt hurt when she looked at the practically cemented look of panic on Wally's face. A tear pricked at the edge of her vision as she thought about the smile that normally took the place of the frightened grimace. Her eyes closed tightly as she held in the rising emotions. Her form stiffened entirely as she felt a strange vibrating on her cheek for a fleeting second before it vanished. Her eyes cracked open and glanced down. She saw confused green eyes staring up at her, a small dot of water shimmering on the thumb of Wally's glove. Zatanna's vision blurred more as tears brimmed her eyes. She didn't see the continued vibrating of the speedster, only knowing that he had wiped away the single fallen tear.

"Wally?" She asked tentatively.

The sudden rush of wind and screeching noise that filled her apartment was enough of a mood breaker, no matter how dismal and tense that mood was.

"Kid?" The red speedster asked.

Zatanna looked from Flash to Wally, watching both speedster's reactions. She watched as Wally starred at his mentor. She could almost see the wheels in his panicked mind turning, trying to place a name with the masked face of the man before him. Then the green eyes turned to her and once again tried to find the information that was so close he could practically feel it. To much disappointment the young speed-demon couldn't name either person in the room.

Zatanna tore her eyes away from the Flash's protege to look at the scarlet speedster as he registered the lack of recognition. The magician picked out the chagrin that seeped onto Flash's face and the tell-tale slump of the shoulders of a disappointed speedster. Zatanna almost reached a hand out to the elder hero, but his head snapped up and all negative emotions fell from his stance and features. His straight lined grimace flipped to a barely there smile and the slump in his shoulder shifted to squared again as he sped forward and stopped inches short of his trainee. Two red-gloved hands shot out to rest on padded shoulders. To Zatanna's surprise Wally didn't flinch away, or retreat in any fashion, from the touch. Faint echoes and whisps of softly, speedily spoken words wafted towards the young girl as she watched the pair of speeding heroes.

As tensed seconds passed Zatanna discerned subtle changes in both of their demeanors. Wally's tense and panicked stance softened minutely and his fuzzy outline solidified, and the more Wally relaxed the more Flash did. Zatanna shifted her gaze back to the red-head, her eyes meeting his. A silent question-and-answer exchange happened before Zatanna closed her eyes, clasped her hands together and took a breath.

"Nwod mlac dna ecaep dnif."

Zatanna saw Wally immediately lurch on his feet, Flash's quick reflexes the only thing saving him from meeting the floor.

"Take it easy, Kid." Flash said as he helped Wally to the couch.

Green eyes were fluttering closed as the younger speed-demon was lowered onto the comfortable piece of furniture. Wally was gripping Flash's hand hard as he looked at Zatanna. A faint smile played on Zatanna's lips as she nodded at him.

"Enjoy your nap this time, will you Wally?" She chuckled as she put a hand on his upper arm.

The faintest ghost of a smile echoed on the cracked and bloodied lips of the speedster as his eyes fluttered closed entirely; a ghost-silent whisper of, "You too Zee." reached the magician.

Her smile widened as she looked down and then back up to Flash, who was smiling too despite his worry. Zatanna stepped back as the adult stepped forward and scooped the young hero into his arms, cradling him as any parent would their child. Like Zatarra had done with Zatanna countless times. The teenager felt her eyes prickle at the thought before a warm voice cut into the sad memory.

"What?" She asked, only now noticing that Flash was at her doorway and waiting to speed away.

"Thank you, Zatanna. You're the best person to have found him, and I think he was coming here on purpose for that reason." Flash smiled and adjusted Wally's position in his arms before continuing, "You're a good friend to him and right now I think he needs that."

"He helped me when I needed it, so I can only return the favor. Plus it wouldn't look too good if the resident magician left a fellow hero to die or get mugged in her own town, would it?" Zatanna tried to joke.  
"Nice try, kid, but I'd leave the jokes to the professionals," Flash chuckled before racing out the door in a red blur.  
"Oh, and like you're a professional?" Zatanna shouted after him.

She laughed to herself as she flopped down on her couch, ignoring the wide-open door. Her black hair was everywhere and her body almost out of gas after the spells and overall excitement of the night. She thought about everything she had gone through in the last twenty-four hours, just the last twenty-four hours. She had gone with the Team to infiltrate a warehouse to rescue Wally and Nightwing, gotten a Batman lecture, trained hard with Canary before coming home and barely stepping out of her shower before getting the call that none of the Leaguer's or Team member's had heard from Kid Flash in over five hours and were worried, but since he didn't have any trackers on him, due to the captivity, Zatanna was the only one who could find him. Then she had dealt with two, TWO speedster-level drama, fear panicky moments in the space of only an hour or two.

"Maybe I should've asked for some kind of compensation. A speed cleaning of my apartment, that'd be fabulous. Maybe I can ask Walls to do it when he's not all freaked out. Yup, definitely going to," Zatanna said as she heaved herself off of the couch and meandered over to the door.

She shut it silently as she could before turning off the lights and starting the walk to her bedroom. What she didn't remember was the mess that the struggling speedster had made, at least until she was laying sprawled out on her floor after tripping over a couch cushion. She let out a loud, squeaking yawn before pulling the cushion closer to her head and curling up.

"Who knew that when people said the floor is more comfortable than your bed, they'd be right," she chuckled to herself as she yawned again, feeling the gentle pull of sleep overtake her; but not before she muttered a final thing, "Yllaw, thgin doog."

She didn't care that she was still fully dressed as she slept, that would just mean one less thing to do in the morning. Her eyes closed, her breathing slowed as sleep crashed over Zatanna and brought peaceful blackness to the overly-exerted magician.


	12. Road of the Lonesome

_**Author'sNote**_

_Hello there my fair readers.  
I'm sorry about my lack of updating swiftly, but there is a valid reason. But just to be funny I want to see who can guess the right reason: a) my beta and I had schedule disagreements b) this chapter was just a dampner to my inner muse c) because this chapter just kept getting longer and longer_

Read and review with your answer, also a little incentive to give a constructive/opinion review is that the 100th reviewer can give me a prompt for a one/two-shot and it will be done.  
So, have at the chapter and review! (Be warned the faint of heart will cry)

Luffles, Creative! ;D

* * *

A faint stream of moon light sank through the curtains of Wayne Manor's temporary resident's room, illuminating her red hair. As the soft silver light penetrated the dark room, so did not-so-quiet sounds of pain. Behind the locked and bolted door the girl let down her most highly guarded boundaries and stepped into the role of a normal teenage superhero. The guilt and pain of her mistakes flooded her once more as her raw throat let out another broken sound of sorrow. Tears escaped her eyes at blinding speeds, as if making up for the times the bat-themed heroine had held them back. Harsh sobs racked through the girl's fine frame, making her shoulders shudder. Her knees were pulled up to her chest, nails biting into the skin through her thick pants. Her tee-shirt was already soaked with salty tears on the hem and collar. Her hair was still a frizzy mess from Barbara's earlier mission with the Team, as was the girl's face and entire demeanor. Her mentor had granted hardly any rest since the young girl had returned home, scarcely letting her grab some food from Alfred. She shivered between the violent shakes of her body as the cold chill of memories swept her away again.

_Red hair hung low to hide her face, arms tight around her core as she tried to hide the bright yellow emblem on her chest. Her blue eyes did not hide behind her mask as her unfocused gaze glued itself to the table before her. For the first time since her very first night as Batgirl, Barbara felt herself resenting the tight kevlar uniform she donned. Her ears hardly registered the low gravelly voice that had been booming warnings and lecturing her for what felt like the last eternity or the achingly-similar bubbly voice of her pseudo younger brother or the always welcome warm english voice that echoed and calmed the other two, until a hand gripped her shoulder firmly, though not painfully._

_Her head snapped up and looked at the man standing beside her with a hard expression on his face. His dark brown eyes were exposed for the eye to see, since the mask semi-permanently hiding his face lay discarded on the table. As Barbara looked at her mentor she saw the slump in his shoulders and the strain in his features that showed he had not slept well these last days nor was happy with Batgirl's involvement in the escape of the villains, despite not having heard the whole story._

_"What happened?" Was all Bruce needed to ask normally, but the guilty frog that had grown in Barbara's throat wouldn't let her say anything._

_She bit her lip hard as the ever-hated prickle began to build behind her eyes. The long, pointed fingers of her suit bit at the skin beneath it's fabric as her fists tightened around her own body. A shaky calming breath flew in and out of Barbara's nose before she loosened her grip and began to opened her mouth a slight fraction._

_"I-I... I screwed up. There's nothing more to tell, okay? I screwed everything up," Barbara said her voice almost a whisper._

_"How?" Came the near-insensitive response._

_Barbara's light blue eyes turned away and squeezed shut as she clamped her jaws tightly together, trying to bury the memory behind the cause of her reaction. The horrifying tale of the second Robin had been a saddening blow to the young girl, despite not know Jason much. And for the Joker to just casually toss around the phrase that he'd said to her first pseudo little brother was not right. Her gut clenched again as she imagined the pain that she would inflict upon that sorry assed excuse for a clown if she ever caught him without anyone there to hold her back. _

_"Barbara, tell me what went wrong_," _Her mentor encouraged._

_The prickle behind Barbara's eyes faded as she squeezed her lids shut and felt the beginning of tears brimming at the edges, sure to fall when she opened them. Her hands dropped from around her chest and closed to fists instead. She pulled her knees to her chest, resting her feet on the edge of her chair. The young girl took a deep breath before steeling her resolve to speak._

_"I-I overreacted. I let them get under my skin and I reacted poorly. It wasn't the place nor time to lose control, but I did." Her voice shook with every word, tears being held back now by sheer force of will._

_What did they do? Torture dear Dickie bird in front of you?" Tim asked from his seat._

_Barbara didn't even respond, remaining unmoving in her seat. She didn't see the quirked eyebrow raise Bruce gave Tim, who answered with a broad grin and was supported by Alfred with a fine, knowing smile. Another deep breath and Barbara took off delving into the explanation of what happened, starting with what she and M'gann felt in the bio-ship and how that had shaken her up a little, though she managed to regain her focus as the group invaded the warehouse. She told them how they found out it wasn't a simple warehouse, that it was a fairly sophisticated base with a level bellow. Regrettably, in her opinion, Barbara began telling how during the fighting she separated herself from the others and taken to the side corridors, only to be nearly caught and forced back the way she had come._

_"Lady Barbara, may I implore you to tell us what it was that the foul clown said that caused an apparent rise in temper?" A kind voice echoed in the air._

_"Must've been something pretty bad. Something around your dad-"_

_"Tim." Bruce warned. _

_"Or maybe just an open-ended question like, 'What is the meaning of life in the universe?'. That one always seems to tick her off." Tim added in, almost laughing._

_"Timoth-" _

_"He brought up Jason, alright you silly little git?" she growled._

_Her blue eyes were wide open and glaring at the younger teenager. Her entire stance was riddled with anger as she stood, cape fluttering behind one in the room made a noise, even Tim shut up, though more from confusion than respect. He had heard stories about the previous Robin, of that Barbara was sure. But did he truly understand the horror that had surrounded the Wayne family and close friends from loosing Jason? The girl didn't think so. Thus, it didn't surprise her when the little imp spoke up again._

_"That was on my guess list." _

_Something in Barbara flipped and her blood soared past a boiling point. She loved Tim like a little brother, but he was so damn annoying at times! He took leading and heroing seriously, but not much else; especially things like this that he just didn't understand. Her blue eyes flooded with anger as she stepped around the table, arms out beside her and an expression of disbelief on her face._

_"Is everything a freaking joke to you right now? Can't you understand what it means that /HE/ was the one to bring that up?" Barbara growled viciously. _

_She saw him opening his mouth to answer and quickly raised hers to cut him off, anger flaring and raging wildly on her face and in her tone._

_"The Joker killed Jason. No, killed is too light of a word. Butchered. That sadistic, psychotic clown /butchered/ Jason, your predecessor; the second Robin. I don't know if you get that. Jason Todd spent his last moments with anyone, with a maniac who left leaving him with a small little phrase; 'be a good boy finish your homework and be in bed by nine, and hey please tell the big man I said... hello'. We got that off of a recording that Jason made to say good-bye. You want to know what ticked me off, you thick-skulled little twerp?!" Barbara yelled, her voice as loud as it could and harsh as anyone had ever heard it. In the heat of her anger she had shoved Tim deeper into his seat and prodded him several times in the chest. Said younger boy was watching his elder pseudo-adoptive sister with slightly wide-eyes, but Barbara ignored that before she continued. "He said that to us, to the Team... to me! I was already having trouble seeing Dick beaten and bloodied by that clown's hands without charging, how do you think hearing that last thing Jason ever heard would affect you?"_

_Barbara was crying, tears freely coming down her cheeks as she turned away from Tim. She wasn't crying cause she was sad or overly happy, nor was it liquid pride; she was crying out of anger. Anger towards the world around her and anger towards herself. All she wanted to do was crawl into a hole and stay there. Unfortunately, she collided with the stone wall that was Bruce Wayne before she was able to leave._

_She looked up at him, her eyes still broiling with anger. Her face clearly depicted the exasperation and annoyance that still course through her. She wasn't about to care right now that Bruce could and would kick her ass into tomorrow if she didn't listen. But, again, she couldn't care. All she needed right then had been to run up to her room and lock herself away, but as she tried to duck around him Barbara felt a hand grab her cape. She whirled around to face him, finding that the lines of his features were set in angered positions too. _

_"What do you want? I told you what happened. What else is there?" Barbara asked._

_"No, you didn't say what happened. You said what made you do it. I want you to tell me, right here and right now, what happened." _

_"I don't need to tell you, you can already guess it! Or are you not the greatest detective there is?" _

_She knew that that jibe would be dearly paid for later but she couldn't care. She was angry again. _

_"I wouldn't say that was me. That would be Question's place, no matter how insane and deluded that man is; but none the less, I want to hear from you what happened."_

_"Why?" She shouted._

_"Because I'm asking you and because it's part of taking responsibility." Barbara could see the lines on his face growing tighter and tighter the more she protested and pissed him off, but she didn't want to say what happened. It had been a mistake and she sure as hell would learn from it._

_"I took responsibility by admitting that I made a mistake! That's more than you could say for half the kids my age!"_

_"But you are not like kids your age. You are a hero, so there are more responsibilities. Admitting that there was a mistake and owning up to the mistake entirely are two different levels. Chose the higher one. Tell me what you did wrong." _

_"No, I'm fine right where I am. If that makes me any less of a hero because I'm content being already above kids my age then, there is nothing you can do about it. You're not my father, you're just my mentor and one that seems to enjoy making parts of his students lives miserable! You ever wonder why all your protege's end up with some kind of sad or depressing part in their life? Because you drive them too hard to be like you! Well I've got a news-flash for you, Brucey. I'm not going to take it! You can't try to fix or ameliorate something that doesn't need it or want it!" Barbara snapped, her anger fueling the power behind her words._

_With her face contorted in a grimace of rage, Barbara watched Bruce's reactions. She didn't see much, which meant she'd struck a nerve._

_A tense silence ensued. The air between Barbara and Bruce crackled with hostility thick enough for a chainsaw to have a hard time cutting through it. Neither one moved, they barely were breathing. Alfred watched with worried eyes as the two stared each other down, Tim silent at his side. Bruce was the first to speak, his brows furrowing and knitting together as his face hardened even more._

_"Than get out."_

_The room was struck into incoherent babbles of protest, the two teens strongly objecting based on asking why._

_"If you won't follow an order that pertains to training you, then there isn't any point in me continuing to train you. As you said, you can't fix or improve that which does not want to be. So, go deal with the city on your own and see how well you do. See how much of you there will be left to love your father or Dick. You think you're beyond admitting your mistake because you think that by explaining there was one makes you better than those who don't own up to anything; well, you're dead wrong. That makes you a danger to the Team and to this family. So get out of this cave. Bruce Wayne will accept Barbara Gordon, but Batman will no longer claim any responsibility for Batgirl." Bruce's tone was cold and harsh, just like his unforgiving dark eyes._

A harsh, high sounding sob disrupted the air. Barbara grabbed a pillow from behind her and pressed it against her mouth. In it she buried her face, hiding her tears as best she could, though there was no one there to see her. She hated this feeling of being weak, of surrendering to her emotions and lack of control over them.

"Babs?" A small voice sounded from across the door.

"What, Imp?" She growled half-heartedly.

"I-I came to say that I... you know... didn't mean to start what I did. I didn't know he'd go that far and that he'd be that pissed. I guess I'm just kind of trying to say that I-umm... It-what happened earlier might be sorta, really, kind of, slightly entirely my fault, and that I'm sort of super sorry that I got you in such deep trouble with Bruce."

Barbara's heart almost stopped at that. The little imp didn't ever apologize, and when he did it was only to Alfred or Bruce; Dick on the rare occasion when Tim caused something to go horribly wrong for the older teen in school or on a mission. Timothy Drake appologzing to Barbara Gordon? She did not think that she would ever live to see the day.

The teen pulled her legs tighter to her chest, squeezing the pillow to keep it there as she raised one hand to her cheeks and wiped away the tears. She sniffled once and cleared her throat before turning her eyes to the door.

"What'd you just say, Imp?" Her voice was laced with an incredulous tone that she just couldn't hide at the moment. She had no ability to apply any sort of tact to the situation.

"I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for being a little pain in the butt. I don't mean to be so... just like that. I guess it just comes with having been holed up here while you were out trying to save him."

"That's called jealousy Imp, get used to it." Barbara half-snapped at him, not meaning to but not able to disguise the out-right tiredness in her voice.

There wasn't any reason why Tim should have paused between answering her, Barbara thought. Then she replayed her words in her head, the biting tone now registering as she heard an annoyed huff and tight steps in front of her door. She flinched away even before she heard Tim draw in breath to yell at her.

"You think you're better than me? Well, you're not! You're not even apart of this family, how'd you get in on this business? Oh right, you begged! You get into more trouble than get out of it and tough luck, you don't even have a superhero gig anymore! You got kicked out, tossed on the streets. Bruce doesn't need you! I don't need you! Dick doesn't need you, especially him; because all you do is hurt him! You always hurt him, today was the last straw. This little family doesn't need you, you screw up! Bruce was right, you're a danger to any team because you don't know when to quit thinking you're better than everyone else! Your father may be the Police Chief, a great man and an even greater leader, but you're nothing like him. You don't deserve the title of being the daughter of the Police Chief, Little Miss Special Barbara Gordon! I take back the apology and replacing it with, I'm glad you're going, cause that's just one less person to worry about." Tim sneered the last line, his voice loud and rough as he shouted.

The echoing stomps the youngest Robin made while storming away drove a new sharp pain in Barbara's chest as she broke down crying again. The hauntingly sorrowful sound was cut short as a simple knock sounded against the wood of her door. Only one person could make that crisp series of knocks.

"Yes, Alfred?"

"Lady Barbara, I assumed that you would be staying with us this night and as such have informed your father. I also feel that I should inform you that Master Bruce, in a humble englishman's point of view, should not have done nor said what he said earlier this evening. It was not right. You are, after all, simply a child; an older one, granted, but a child never the less. You should be allowed your mistakes, otherwise one will never learn what to do to handle one's mistakes. You are a bright, strong young woman Lady Barbara, and I would be very much displeasured for you to miss out on learning from mistakes."

The old man paused awaiting a response that came almost too faint for him to hear.

"Thanks, Alfred."

"It is my genuine pleasure, Lady Barbara. Now, might I suggest that you freshen up before bed so that I may wash your suit and so that you can calm down for a restful sleep? I would very much like to sleep through the night, as Master Bruce and Master Timothy both have early morning engagements."

"Sure thing, Alfred. I'll be out in a minute or two."

"Very well."

And with that the man's quiet footsteps faded down the hall. Barbara wiped away the tears that had formed under her eyes from what Alfred had said. Her legs were still curled tightly to her chest as she shook her head and swallowed back the sadness. She had just gotten fired from the best job in the world by the man that she kind of looked up to, her father's best friend in both day and night hours as Bruce Wayne and Batman. Barbara had been friends with Dick in school and once she started hanging out with the weird freshman outside of school it wasn't long before she figured out the connection, not to mention the little cackler left her hints to put together.

Barbara chuckled as she thought of how many times she and Dick had bickered over whether or not she would have put it all together without her help. It was always the same circle with the same arguments that left both of them laughing and chasing the other. The teenage girl swung her legs over the side of her bed to the memory of a particular moment they had shared before the craziness of their lives combined came up. Barbara pulled a hand up to her face, resting it over her eyes. Dick had said something then that, at the time, Barbara did not understand, but now made complete sense.

_They were sitting at the usual picnic bench, food in front of them as well as their homework. They were in one of their rare silences after Barbara had told Dick about her breaking up with her boyfriend over something idiotic but not unexpected he'd done._

_"You want to know something, Babs?"_

_She turned her head to give the Boy Genius a look that could almost be called inquisitive amusement were it not for the blatant traces of boredom clear in her features._

_"You don't need someone like him. A girl like you deserves someone better than that doofus; someone who is smart, good-looking, can hold his own in situations and appreciate that you can too." Dick said, keeping his gaze away from her's purposefully._

_"Oh, and who would that be, brainiac? Hate to say it but there isn't anyone in Gotham that fits that description. You just rattled off the _perfect_ ideal for any girl in this town, but there isn't anyone like that here." Barbara explained with an informative yet disappointed chuckle._

She hadn't noticed in that moment how his shoulders had slumped forwards and his expression had darkened, nor how he had been distracted and slow the rest of the day. But as she thought about it now, Barbara understood what he had meant and why it had taken him a while to build back up the courage to approach her after that, even as Robin.

She had been constantly pushing away the prospect of being with him because of their nightly activities, or more accurately their lifestyles since crime-fighting didn't have regular hours. She had been pushing away all the attempts since Dick had made it clear that he liked her, despite her returning the warm, heart-wrenchingly-painful-to-ignore feelings that he had. Barbara let out a low growl of annoyance at the universe, angry at it for shoving the fact that Barbara was being too stubborn in her face using the guy she liked as leverage; too bad the universe didn't seem to get that it was only making it worse.

Anger coursed through the red-head as she stood and began walking furiously around her room, gathering toiletries to go wash up, throwing them viciously into her bag. She hated being helpless, she hated feeling that mushy overwhelming surge of something when she was around Dick, she hated feeling the pain and worry and uncertainty that she had felt with Jason about the one guy in the world who pulled off being perfect without looking like it.

Her eyes were tightly shut as she stormed towards the door, her bag clenched tightly in her free fist as she yanked it open. Her barefoot steps made no sound despite her anger as she traversed the hallway to the bathroom. Once inside and having locked the door and windows Barbara undressed and almost leaped into the shower. She turned the water on, shivering as it burst to life Arctic-cold and letting out an almost content sigh as she turned the nob and felt the temperature rise to scalding hot. She quickly washed her hair and the rest of her, enjoying the feeling of the burning water on her skin. The heat relaxed her muscles, allowing her to calm, not to mention washing off all the traces of grit and grime and blood from her skin.

Once done Barbara grabbed her towel and began to methodically dry herself. First her hair to prevent it dripping down her back more, then her arms and front before moving to her back and then to her legs, lastly her feet. The towel was rubbed roughly and quickly over her prickling, red skin. She shivered, feeling cold in the not-so-cold steamed up room after the equivalently red-hot water. Her hands dropped the now wet towel and reached for the other one she had brought along, wrapping it around her before slipping on a dark blue robe and tying the waist. She closed the bathroom door behind her, not wanting to let the moist, steamy air into her room more than necessary; it would not be wise to have Alfred angry with her too for causing him to deal with mold.

She took a deep breath and dropped the bag beside her door, before walking over to her drawers. She opened them, pulling out a pair of sweatpants that she adored because they were way too big for her. She slid off the robe and towel, slipping easily into the over-sized cozy garment. Next she sifted through the drawer for a comfortable top. The fact that she chose a red tank top with the stylized Robin 'R' on it had nothing to do with her warring feelings with all of the silly little birds she had worked with. Another shiver ran down her spine. Barbara instinctively reached for the sweatshirt that had caught her eye several seconds ago. In a quick fluid motion she had flipped it over her head and slipped it on. But not even seconds after did she realize why she suddenly relaxed and almost felt like crying at the same time, a familiar scent had wrapped around her. The familiar smell of fresh air mingled with vanilla and pine, covering a softer tone of what Barbara could best pinpoint as a floral scent. One person sprang to mind at the bizarre combination. Dick.

Barbara laughed, though the sound came out more as a choking gag, as the thought ran through her mind. She didn't ever remember having one of his sweatshirts in her room, for whatever reason.

With a half-amused scowl she rolled her eyes at the boy she was likely to murder on sight for putting her through her current ordeal. That monkeyish boy was always managing stuff like that. He used to put so many of his clothes in with her's when Alfred was putting them in her room that Barbara had stopped thinking of it as funny and more of a normal occurrence. But he had stopped recently. Why? Barbara didn't know, but grabbing a sweatshirt of his from her drawers made a smile spread on her face, despite the growing sadness that festered with it.

A quick hand rose up to her eyes, trying to wipe away the building prickle before it became a fire in her eyes. They were already puffed enough and bright red from crying. She was sick of it. Tears had no place when you fought crime and handled the life Barbara lived. So why was she crying so much? She thought that she'd lost the ability to cry after crying over her dead cat years ago. Apparently the universe was set on proving her wrong in every possible way today.

A sigh escaped Barbara as she pulled the hood of the sweatshirt over her head, enjoying the scent. She closed her eyes and for a brief second she pictured that the actual owner of the annoyingly interesting scent were present, but as she opened her eyes a fog of disappointment fell over her. She let a sigh escape her lips as she dropped onto the bed. She slowly wiggled her way into the bed and pulled the comforter as high and tight around herself as she could, trying to pretend that it was Dick around her; that he was there and protecting her from everything.

She drifted into light sleep, her thoughts turning to dreams as the sky slowly clouded over. The moon hid from view and rain began pelting down.

* * *

A loud crack across the sky caused a startled young Tim Drake to launch forward into a sitting position. His dark blue eyes scanned the room, frantically searching for anything. The light sheen of sweat that had come to life over his skin was not unusual during weather like this, as he often had nightmares. Storms were not his friend. They always gave him nightmares. It didn't matter if he knew they were coming or not, but once they came Tim's night was always shot to hell and back with nightmares. And tonight was no different, except he didn't have Dick to go to for comfort.

His hands balled up on the sheets as the young boy pressed his back and his pillows against his headboard. His dark azure eyes squeezed shut as the boy curled forward to press his face to his knees, blocking out the light in an attempt to hide. He felt his heart beating a million-miles an hour in his chest, and when he pressed a hand to his forehead he felt the sweat that had built up.

"Why does this happen? I don't even remember it!" He mumbled to himself as his body tensed again at a clack of thunder.

A short sniffle slipped through Tim's attempt to control and relax himself. He let out an annoyed growl as his body fought for control, the lingering panic from the dream still clinging to him. A sad sigh echoed in the air, immediately covered by the pounding of rain. As he focused on the pattering of the rain so similar to tears; the tears of Gotham his father used to say. A long, slow sigh was pushed from his body as an eerily familiar feeling creeped into him and began to relax in a way only defeated sadness can bring. He let the tightly held fists and curled up knees soften and straighten out. Only for them to snap back into position again at the cracking sound of the thunder and shrieking wind. It was too similar to the dream's sounds. An involuntary shiver ran through his spine. He did not bother trying to figure out how he knew the dream's sounds.

The boy considered throwing his comforter over his head and seeing if that would do any good. Didn't little kids do that and everything became alright again? Maybe Tim could too and everything from the last few days would turn out to be a horrible nightmare that Dick would come wake him up from. Then again, Batgirl getting fired was not something he would typically come up with in a nightmare; on the rare occasion when they really went at it Tim would dream up her getting turned her into some sort of fuzzy animal that he could humiliate. But getting her fired from the Bat Team and kicked out of superheroing? That wasn't something that Tim would dream up. He understood what being a hero meant to her, understood it more than she thought he did. Just because Time acted like a little twirp and all-but tortured Barbara didn't mean that he hated her; in fact it was the complete opposite. He loved Barbara just like an older sister and what he did, he did because he just wanted to have fun.

Emotions were still running rampant through Tim's system as he sat on the bed, just holding his head between his knees. He did not care how many seconds or minutes passed, only that they seemed to be of no help in calming him. He threw the covers off of him as his small legs swung over the side of the bed. As soon as his feet touched the floor he was off, not at a speeding pace but fast enough. He didn't exactly know where he was going, his body acting upon instinct as it opened the door and began moving through the manor.

The halls were dark and the only noise Tim constantly picked out was the steady thrumming of rain on the old roof and windows. His steps made no sound as he walked through the immense house. His feet carried him down passages he had forgotten were there, hands flying to handles of rooms he didn't know existed and opening them before he had time to think. For each room he opened or passed without hearing a sound his breathing hitched more and more. The boy didn't understand what was wrong and the unfamiliarity of the corridors began to make his young mind panic further, at least until he wound up in the kitchen.

The cooking area was clean as ever, not a drop nor spec nor trace of any food or liquid was visible on any surface or appliance; just how Alfred liked it. Tim would sometimes poke fun at the old englishman for his near-obsessive nature towards cleanliness. Though, when you're a butler for more than forty years in a home mostly inhabited by teenage boys Tim could think of a few reasons to be that way.

The boy walked slowly across the tiled floor, watching where he stepped for a reason unknown to him. He stopped in front of the refrigerator. His hand reached out to open it before stopping inches away at a bright flash of light. The loud roar of thunder rolled through the house soon after. A sudden image of silver and red burst to life in Tim's mind before disappearing. The boy stumbled away from the fridge and reached for an apple in the fruit basket on his way out the door. His head was spinning a little and his mouth had run dry when the fragment had abruptly come-and-go.

His pace through the halls quickened, though he still didn't know how his body was deciding where to go or where it was going. The rain still was pounding fiercely, dripping down the windows in streams and rivers. The even rhythm of the rain gave Tim a steady companion as he walked, one who didn't leave, falter or speak; the perfect companion to the frightened and lonely boy. He slowly ate away at the apple, still holding the core as he walked though. Alfred angry at him for leaving garbage laying around wasn't a good option. How the butler and Bruce always knew that it was him leaving the stuff around was beyond Tim. Sure, he was a teenager but he wasn't the only one living in the house!

The quiet chuckle that escaped him was eclipsed by a sudden silence as Tim looked around and noticed where he was. The area leading to Bruce's room. Tim gulped down the little bit a saliva on his tongue as he cautiously proceeded, an inexplicable need just to check on his guardian. The pounding of the rain now only served to aggravate the young boy as he walked through the hall silently, listening for any sound but knowing Bruce there wasn't going to be a sound to pick up with the harshness of the rain echoing. He stopped at the simple yet elegant door that he had been quickly taught was never to be opened without permission. A new thin sheet of sweat came to life upon Tim's skin, as he reached a hand towards the brass handle. His fingers barely skimmed over the cold metal before jerking away, a tingling feeling not dissimilar to what's left after a static shock floating on his skin. His eyes widened as he stepped away, a strange feeling of dread settling in his stomach and making his head spin. He swallowed hard before bolting down the hall. As he retreated down the carpeted hall his steps rang out, though muffled. He did not know how Bruce slept through his noisy retreat- no he did. Because Bruce wasn't there. His gut was telling him that no one was in the mansion, that he was alone.

Tears threatened to topple over the sides of his eyes as he ran.

This could not be real, he was not alone! But then why was this pit in his stomach screaming so loudly that he was? Frantic breaths in and out were the most constant of sound around him, the rain having started blowing every which-way in the now severe winds. His heartbeat, normally so slow and calm like Bruce had taught him, was out of control and wildly speeding up as the boy sprinted down halls.

Tim squeezed his eyes shut, trying to ignore the things his mind was conjuring up. Maybe Bruce was just out patrolling, looking for any villains with connections to Nightwing. That could have been why, but with the weather so bad and it being so late Alfred would have ordered Bruce to return to the manor saying, "Master Bruce, I do wish that you would return before you catch cold because I will not be aiding you if you do." Tim almost chuckled at the thought before skidding to a halt. Where was Alfred? Tim had passed by his room earlier with no indications he was there either. Had something happened to everyone? First Dick was kidnapped, Bruce M.I.A. and now Alfred?

Everything seemed to be bombarding Tim at once. He backed slowly against a wall, sliding down till he was sitting on the carpeted floor. His legs were pulled tight as could be to his chest in a futile attempt to hold everything together. He would not cry. Fear was only powerful if you gave into it, nothing could surpass you unless you let it. One had to always be stronger than their fears or situations. But how could one kid, he would admit now and now only that yes he was a kid deep down, possibly be stronger than finding out he was alone?

A tear dripped over the edge, beginning a trail down his flushed and sweat-tinged cheek. His head lurched forward as his mouth stretched wide in a soundless, breathless shout of pain. His body was not hurt, but he was alone again. It felt worse than when he'd walked into his apartment and found his father on the floor, blood pooling around the man. Tim shook his head violently, sending the newly falling stream of tears flying. His hands climbed up to his hair and closed into fists around the black strands. His body shuddered and shook with soundless sobs as he felt himself coming undone. One thing Tim could not handle was being alone, being forgotten or being left behind. His mom and dad had already left him behind, his pseudo-older brother had pretty much moved on and now his new family gone too? One hand dropped from his hair to pound on the floor a single time. And then again. And again. And again. With each thump of fist to carpet more anger and emotion leaked out of Tim. He felt the urge, the want, the_ need _to scream at something to get a reaction out of something in the old house of stone.

Tim pulled his head away from his knees and rested it on the wall behind him, raising his eyes to the wall across from him. He ignored the tears that were settling on his cheek as he tried to refocus, tried to reign in the storming thoughts. But what good would it do? His gut was never wrong. How else would he have been able to deduce Batman and Robin's identities as a nine-year-old? Because he could put two and two together from who-knows-where and have it equal four, despite the added numbers and steps, he would always get there. And now, no matter how much he wished he wasn't right... he knew he was.

As his pulse quieted and his breathing eased into a slow, hiccuping rhythm Tim began to hear noises coming from down the hall. His eyes widened and ears would have pricked up if he had been a dog as he rose to his feet. His heart was racing again, but in a different way; with hope as the cause instead of dread. He walked quietly as he could, following the sound as it grew louder and louder. Tim quickly recognized the barely-lit hall he was traveling down. He walked it many a dark and stormy night when he needed someone to just be there for him. When he was met with a door Tim knelt to the ground and peered through the small opening of the door left ajar. His ears had almost recognized the owner of the almost tear-jerking sounds but that didn't make seeing the silhouetted figure in the room any less painful.

He could see her shoulders heaving and shuddering, her red hair a pale, fiery mess surrounding her mostly shadowed face. Tim saw tissues scattered around the floor, most likely wet with tears just like her cheeks were. He cringed as another harrowing sob rang in the air. He watched as Barbara pulled her face away from her knees and turned it towards the window, her tangled mess of red hair facing Tim. He didn't expect her to start talking, and when she did he was shocked at how raw and pained her voice was; so shocked he almost didn't listen to her words.

"I get that I screwed up. I do. And I get that because of me, they might never see him again. I really fucking get that! You've rubbed it in my face enough times for me to finally understand that I'm not gonna get anywhere. I've finally gotten the message. You've had my father tell me, my teachers, Bruce and now even Tim has gone and shoved it down my throat! Do you have any other possible way to throw that at me? Do you?" Barbara was almost yelling, her voice cracking with the pain behind her words. Tim was bordering on crying as she continued, "You had to go and use Timmy, especially right after he finally mans up and apologizes. That squirt doesn't get enough credit for being a leader, if he wanted to that little joker could make you feel like such a failure. Then again I guess he's got practice telling that stuff to himself when he's completely wrong. If he was just a little older and little more confidant, I bet you Timmy would be the best leader the Team has ever seen. The kid has the smarts and the moves to anything those guys can do and do it ten times better. I bet if he'd get some backbone and stopped being a twerp, maybe he already would be the leader."

Tim sat back on his heels. He didn't pay attention to the words Barbara was saying after that, only her tone, as he processed what she had said. He could not believe that the girl who gave him so much grief about being unaware of stuff and teased him more than anyone else about being a younger version of Dick had said that he could be the greatest leader the Team ever had. He couldn't wrap his foggy mind around that fact.

His attention was pulled back to the room in front of him when Barbara stood up and walked over to Dick's desk. Tim opened the door a little more, his head sticking into the room as his eyes followed her. He made sure to keep his mouth shut as he watched Barbara sit down in Dick's giant plush desk chair and pull her legs up to her chest. She turned on the light and looked at the photos scattered over the desk, Tim was too far away to tell which one she was focusing on but he had spent enough time in the room to know that taped and tacked all over Dick's desk were photo's of him and Babs doing all of the craziest stuff.

Barbara's shoulder's began to shake more furiously as she reached for a small string of photo's. Tim stood slowly, fighting the little brother urge to go over and give Barbara a giant hug. He knew that she and Dick were really close friends, and that his brother wished that she would open up her eyes and let them become something more; and that made for a good enough reason for him to want to quell her crying. Not to mention, she was the only person that he had found in the manor this entire night.

The door swung open wide as soundlessly as Tim had hoped, just as it did every night he had come to Dick. Why was it, he wondered as he walked towards Barbara, that this room always held so much sadness? First off, it housed the first Robin who had lost all of his family in one swoop and was landed in this crazy life; secondly, every night there was a storm it would shelter a crying, scared little boy who was comforted by his adoptive, elder brother's words. Thirdly, it was once the shared room of Jason Todd and Dick Grayson. Tim could not fathom why this room seemed to be the magnet in the manor for sadness and all that would not go right.

Tim did not need to wonder why Barbara wasn't noticing him approaching, the sounds of her crying would be enough to mask an elephant stampede. Not to mention the self-depreciating soliloquy was enough to give Tim a headache- no, a migraine! He stopped a foot or so away, not wanting to spook her and end up pinned to the ground with a bloody nose; experiencing that once was enough. Plus, he was just stunned by what she was saying.

"God, Dick, why did you choose me? Of all the girls there are in this city, why me? All I've ever done is hurt you myself, gotten you hurt by other people or somehow managing to combine the two. Every time we're around each other one of us always ended up hurt, more often then not you because I couldn't watch my stupid mouth. I mean come on, how many times did I accidentally bring up Haley's Circus when we first started hanging out? Or complain to you about my dad grounding me when you don't even have one? Or even worse saying that I couldn't care less if my dad came home that one night when he'd gotten so mad at me and David? How did you pick me to be your best-friend, to be your partner in the field and how the hell did you ever think it was a good idea to try and get me to be your 'other half'?" A saddened chuckle escaping her. "Maybe you'd find a more asterous partner is all senses of the word if I just left. I mean, there's nothing I'm doing here that wouldn't be fixed by someone else. Dad has his job and Jim Jr., he won't miss me too much. You'd be better off without me. I'm pretty sure Timmy wants me to leave, he's never liked me much. And I think I pressed Bruce a little too hard, now he wants nothing to do with me. Overall, the simplest thing to do is leave. But you'd never forgive me... would you?"

Tim's body went rigid. Air caught in his throat and his blood turned to ice. The rain seemed to pound harder on the roof as he froze. She couldn't leave. She was the only one still there, the only person he could turn to; and she wanted to just pack up and leave? She wanted to skip town while Dick was prisoner and before he could hammer it into her thick skull that they would be just fine together? It was mind-boggling to Tim in that moment how Barbara could think about leaving. Then the words he had shouted at her hours earlier flooded his mind again, _"The only thing you have that makes you special anymore is being the daughter of the Police Chief, Little Miss Special Barbara Gordon!"_; _"Bruce doesn't need you! I don't need you! Dick doesn't need you, especially him; because all you do is hurt him! You always hurt him, today was the last straw. This little family doesn't need you, you screw up!"_ Tim shuddered as he remembered storming away and the feeling of the anger just draining from him. A new feeling of dread welled up inside him, making the boy feel like curling around himself once more.

Tears started coming down, because once he let them out in a day there was no stopping more. His lip started to quiver as the old feelings of panic and abandonment swelled. He stepped backwards, stumbling and falling to the floor in a loud crash. He watched as Barbara whirled around, fear shinning in her eyes.

He didn't mean to say those things, he just did. He didn't really mean them period. Sure, Bruce didn't need her around, but in a way Tim did; especially then.

"Tim?" Her raw voice croaked, only making the boy scurry farther away on the floor.

He saw the shock and worry spread on her face as she looked over his. He squeezed his eyes shut and looked away, curling into a ball with his knees tight to his chest. Tears rushed faster down his face. He was almost surrendering to the sobs wanting to run through his body, but he wouldn't break anymore in front of her. He wouldn't. He was stronger than that, stronger than the tears and sadness.

"Timmy, you okay?" She asked, her pained voice filled with raw concern.

Tim heard the chair move as she stood up. His eyes flashed open, an almost angry fire burning in them as he looked at her. A scowl was set upon his face, though it was riddled with the pain of betrayal more than anger at her. He wanted to scream at her that he was not alright, that his life was betraying him and just closing in on him.

"You're leaving. Why?" Was all that Tim could say without his voice cracking badly.

Tears burst forth harder, soft sobs made his small frame tremble like a leaf caught in the rolling, roaring storm winds. He felt lost and alone, nothing new but something that he had been trying to forget. Loosing one family was harder enough and the nightmare of loosing your second one was worse by far, not to mention actually loosing a member to villains. He didn't want to see everyone he cared about go. He turned his head away again, closing his eyes in an attempt to close her out as well. If she was going to leave than he wished that she would just pack up and skip town already!

He did not expect to feel pressure on his shoulder and then warmth wrapping around him. For a brief second Tim tried squirming away from the arms enveloping him before a clap of thunder rolled into the room, sending him clinging to Barbara almost as much as she was to him. Without a second's more of hesitation Tim was curling his neck to press his forehead into the crook of her neck and wrapping his arms tight around the red-head to hold himself to her, not wanting to let her leave ever. Tears began to dribble onto her tank top as Tim cried, repeatedly mumbling the phrase, "Please don't go. Promise you won't leave, please. Promise!". A soft, rhythmic hand rubbed his back in soothing circles as she cooed sweetly at him. Somehow her rough, raw from crying voice still managed to sound gentle and sincere as she put all she had into coaxing little Tim to dry his tears. Nothing worked from tender words to calming stories, to just plain explaining.

Tim wasn't hearing anything Barbara said, not caring until she said she would stay. He wouldn't lose her, he couldn't and wouldn't. Eventually his tears stopped, but solely because he didn't have anymore to cry. He slowly pulled back and looked up at Barbara, his azure eyes puffed and bloodshot. A touching smile flashed across the girl's blotchy face.

"It's okay Timmy, I'm here. I can't promise I'll be here forever, our jobs won't allow that; but I'll promise you this: I'll be here in the morning." She said, raising one of her hand's closed in a fist with her pinky extended.

A sloppy smile stretched weakly at Tim's lips as he brought up a hand closed in the same manner. A pinkie promise was a sacred thing among the Bat-family, and not something done lightly. Timmy held the promise for longer then he usually did, but that wasn't surprising. He needed to make sure it would stick.

Once they released hands Tim sat back on his heels, almost smiling. Lightning flashed to life before a booming roar of thunder roared across the sky, causing Tim to throw his arms around Barbara's neck, hugging her tightly again. Tears weren't falling down his face anymore but he still needed the contact, the knowing that someone was always going to be there and that he wouldn't be alone to face the storm. In a single swift movement Barbara was on her feet and carrying Tim over to the bed, princess style. Once standing over the side of the bed, Barbara ever so gently pried his arms from around her neck and set him down on the comforter. She grabbed a fuzzy blanket from the floor and tossed it over Tim before sitting down next to him. She wiped a stray piece of sweat-dried hair from his forehead with a smile before sighing.

"You wanna hear a lullaby my mother taught me to sing during storms to my little brother?" Barbara asked.

Tim didn't know whether to say yes or no. He didn't want Babs to hurt her voice anymore than it was, but he needed something to help him fall asleep. Taking the silence as the ever so constant answer of yes, Barbara cleared her throat and closed her eyes.

"Little child, be not afraid; /though rain pounds harshly against the glass /like an unwanted stranger, there is no danger /I am here tonight. /little child, be not afraid /though thunder explodes and lightning flash / illuminates your tear-stained face /I am here tonight /and someday you'll know /that nature is so /the same rain that draws you near me /falls on rivers and land /on forests and sand /makes the beautiful world that you'll see/ in the morning /little child, be not afraid /though storm clouds mask your beloved moon /and its candlelight beams, still keep pleasant dreams/ I am here tonight /little child, be not afraid/ though wind makes creatures of our trees /and their branches to hands, they're not real, understand /and I am here tonight /for you know, once even I was a /little child, and I was afraid /but a gentle someone always came /to dry all my tears, trade sweet sleep for fears/ and to give a kiss goodnight /well now I am grown /and these years have shown /that rain's a part of how life goes/but it's dark and it's late /so I'll hold you and wait 'til your frightened eyes do close/ and I hope that you'll know... /Everything's fine in the morning. /The rain'll be gone in the morning./But I'll still be here in the morning." Her voice remained soft and sweet, despite the pain that she tried to hide.

Sure it hurt to talk much less sing, but she could tell when someone needed a lullaby; and now was one of those times. She smiled to herself as she watched Tim's eyes drift to a close. She stood up and walked to the window, looking outside at a brief break in the clouds and an ethereal beam of moonlight streaming through it. She followed the silver beam and saw it resting on police station, probably hitting the Bat-Call dead on. She smiled to herself as she thought maybe, just maybe, the universe had gotten it's point across and now she could start setting things right instead of screw them up. She reached for the edge of the curtains and pulled them closed before moving back to the bed.

She crawled on top of it and slid beneath the blanket next to Tim. She relaxed and snuggled into the familiar scented pillows, a smile on her face despite the nagging thoughts trying to wipe it away, trying to get her to run. But she promised Timmy that she would be there in the morning and so she would. She closed her eyes and was drifting off to sleep when she heard steps coming towards the room. She heard the door close slowly and the faint whisper of, "Good night, Lady Barbara. Good night, Master Timothy." With that she drifted off into a peaceful realm of sleep, marred only by thoughts of waking up again.

* * *

_**Author'sNote II**_

_Okay, so I forgot to say this in the above Author'sNote so I'll do it in this one. The lullaby that Barbara sings is A Lullaby For A Stormy Night by Vienna Teng. Also, does no one love my little last paragraph that shows Alfred being Alfred and showing up at just the most weird yet perfect of times?_


	13. Little Note

Hi there readers,

Okay so I've been looking over my story and been reading it from the beginning... and my word how did you guys ever get into this story in the first place? My writing was terrible! I'm so sorry, but then again I didn't have a beta in the beginning. So, to make it up to you guys who are like always reading this story and staying true and reviewing it I'm going to go back and revise the earlier chapters of the story. I think it'll make the story better overall and help me worry less about the plot being inconsistent and wobbly and such.

So, I'll post in the Author'sNotes when I'm done going over an old chapter. I encourage you to go back and read it and tell me if you see/read a difference.

Thanks,  
Creative ;D


	14. Road of the Lost

_**Author'sNote**_

_Hello,_

_So I don't know if this took a while or not. But it's a decent length and good quality, plus it's about the one person you guys have been dying to read about, plus some stuff that a few of you guys have been wanting to read. Beware, it's got a bit of graphic stuff at the end and is definitely not something to read if you don't want to read that at the end._

_This is the third out of four chapters that are all taking place at the same time, one more and it's about the Team and will kick off well into the continuing time stream.  
_

_But for now I bid you all to enjoy this precious little chapter about our dear little Wing and tell me what you think.  
_

_I love you all! Have fun and read well._

_Luffles from Creative! _

_PS: remember 100th reviewer gets to have a one-shot written for them about any YJ __character/pairing (besides anything that takes place in Season 2) slash/straight in fine with me. _

_Now... 3, 2, 1... READ!_

* * *

A low groan broke the still silence as it's sole occupant stirred. Blue eyes struggled open, finding only blackness as they searched for indications of where their holder was. Arms tried lifting away from the hard table, stopped by restraints around wrists, forearm and upper-arm. A low pound sprang to life as the boy rested his arms fully on the table before trying to move his legs, finding them held in place as well. Nervousness began gnawing at Dick's gut as he found himself only able to distinguish that he was on some sort of metallic table with either a very ripped up Nightwing suit or something wrapped around sporadic parts of his upper body.

The tell-tale buzzing of automatic doors rang to life, making Dick turn his head to locate the sound. A loud whoosh preceded a faint clicking sound. The rhythmic clicking grew louder before being eclipsed by another sweeping of the mechanical doors. Something warm touched Nightwing's forehead before ripping away whatever it was that had been over his eyes. The hero closed his eyes, the sudden exposure to bright light making them burn. With slow blinks to adjust to the light Nightwing began to take in his surroundings. He was indeed strapped to a table, though the room was something other than what he had pictured. Instead of the dreary and terrifying setting his mind had conjured up based on previous experiences, the room before him was more of a hospital room versus dungeon. Better. Not great, but better. Dick was ripped from his thoughts as a light bout of laughter filtered into the air. He turned his unmasked eyes onto the girl standing next to him. He quickly determined her age to be no older than Wally or Kaldur but definitely no younger than himself. Though her face was mostly covered by a feline-inspired mask the protege could easily see that she was of some asian descent, curtesy of the shape of her face and definitions her tight mask gave to her cheek bones.

"Hello there, Nightwing. Can I just call you Wing? Please? It's so much easier to say then Nightwing," asked the girl, her tone a little too high pitched for someone old as Kaldur thus confirming that she was more towards Dick's own age.

Dick didn't answer, only watching her as she walked around gathering various things in her arms before returning. She laid out everything she had gathered for Dick to see; a pair of scissors, thread, needles, gauze, tape and plenty of disinfectant. Thoughts started running through Dick's head about all the possible things that could happen with those few materials, and none of them good nor pleasant. When she picked up the scissors and began moving towards the hero Dick let himself freeze, he wouldn't break or squirm or give them any leverage on him; he was the protege of the Batman, he could take a little pain. When he followed the glinting silver blades to his chest new information added itself to the mathlete's equation. His chest was already covered in a bandage, though it was no longer white. The scissors slipped under the first layer and the felinesque girl began clipping away the soiled, bloodied bandage layer by layer.

Shock was what held Dick in place as the final layer of the largest chest bandage was removed. The lacerations and marks that had been carved there by the Joker were cleaned and prettier scabs than the mess of dried blood and dirt infested scabs they had been. He was also surprised by the gentleness with which the cat-themed villainess seemed to apply the new coating of disinfecting spray, then wiped away the excess pooling liquid, then lotion to slowly and near-painlessly remove the scab. He only winced internally once, when she had pressed too hard on a scab that laced over a rib problem of some sort and cut across a previous scar. And despite him not even flinching in any minute amount outwardly, the girl seemed to know. After that she had been more careful, hardly skimming the cloth over the scabs as she removed them and smoothed a thick, gelatinous paste over them. The concoction made a cool, soothing numbness leak over the wounds. Dick's head pressed back into the table as he fought the urge to relax. He felt the bandages being tugged out from under him, leaving his bare back against the metal table. He was not focusing as the same soft, bubbly voice began speaking.

"Look, I know this is going to hurt and be weird no matter what I do; but I need you to arch your back so I can get the bandages all the way around. I know you've got no reason to trust or even like me period, but this isn't for me or for them. Me doing this is so that you won't die or get sick or any infected injuries."

Her eyes were open and in full view for Dick to examine as he debated what to do. Over several seconds thoughts of her hurting him any more than he was if he did or did not comply with what she was asking, of him being able to find out why she was doing this in the first place and his overall paranoia at the situation crossed his mind. With a slow nod the acrobat began to lift his back off the table, arching it enough that Wally could have slid underneath him with ease.

The girl quickly went to work, wrapping the white gauze around Dick's thin chest tightly. Occasionally she would pause and shift her eyes up to look at Dick's, searching for signs that she was wrapping it too tight. Within seconds of the pause she would resume wrapping. When she was done she place a feather-light hand on Dick's chest and put hardly an ounce of pressure to tell him letting his back drop down to the table was okay. Next she moved onto the arms, not needing scissors to cut off the wrap as she slowly unwound it by hand. As the silence filled with tension her mouth started moving.

"I blame that idiotic clown if you ask me, I hated him right from the start; but I got roped into working for him by my best-friend. She and I started working together off the streets in Bludhaven, no one there to oppose us as we started up our names. Then Luma gets wind of the Prince of Crazy's plans to recruit a team to go up against the Justice League's covert op's team and decides that she wants us in on it. We didn't know that it was a kidnapping, or would it be called hero-napping? Anyway, we thought it was a quick fight to take you guys down a notch; not hero-nap with intentions to-" The girl was cut off, much to Dick's annoyance, by a loud whoosh of the doors and angry huffing of a hauntingly familiar voice.

"Why's Mister J. so hung up on that floozy? Can' he see tha' I'm righ' here?" The high voice whined as she began pacing angrily around the room.

The bells on her hat jingled with every step and toss of her head. Her black and red costume was the same as ever, as she entered Dick's field of vision; a complete and utter rip-off of a once hilarious court jester's costume. He shied away as her hands banged on the table next to his ear. He ignored the ringing as he looked at Harley's face, seeing the _dis_traught anger and hurt that lay there so plain even with the coatings of make-up. Dick expected the unstable sidekick of the Joker to start running around rampaging in the infirmary, as Dick would call it now, not to hear the calm, soft voice that had made even him listen speak-up.

"Harley, he sees you but he's moving on. You were a plaything for him, like a mouse is to a cat. He got tired and moved on, maybe you should too."

"Nah, Mister J. wouldn' leave me behind. I'm his partner, more than that li'l plant muncher. He's a gentleman he is, that Mister J. He probably is just playin' nice to the girl, wha' wit' her babies all bein' left behind. That's it, righ' Felli?" Harley asked, turning her deranged gaze up to the girl's amber eyes.

Dick could not help but notice the sadness in the smile that formed on the cat-girl's lips and the pity that lodged in her eyes as she nodded.

"Probably Harls, probably."

The harlequin themed villainess started skipping around with merry sounds of joy echoing in the room. The sounds were roared over by the fast whooshes of the door before the room was silent. A long heavy sigh escaped the girl as she closed her eyes, a large weight seeming to be on her shoulders. Dick tried to stifle the growing concern or sense of 'this person is feeling bad, I should help them' morality, but to no success as his mouth opened and let the flood gates open to Dick's too-good sense of goodness.

"Something squashing the aster in your life?"

"Squash the what out of my life?" Came the typical response.

"Aster. You know, opposite of disaster?" Dick said, trying to get some sort of positive reaction.

The only one he got however was a light, almost disbelieving chuckle of, "You've got some imagination Wing." That was followed by her resuming unwrapping the bandage on his arm. Her fingers were a little stiffer and heavier than before, but his arms were less sensitive than his chest and as such he didn't flinch once through the unwrapping.

"It's not imagination it's pure logic. The prefix 'dis' expresses negation, thus if it's in front of something it's just canceling it or making it the opposite. Take distraught for an example. Distraught means deeply upset or agitated, in my words it means not feeling the aster but that's explanations for another time. So, if you take the 'dis' out of distraught you are then left with traught, a word that means calm and focused. Making sense?" Dick asked, a smile forming painfully on his lips as he finished explaining.

With a shake of her head the girl replied, "Not in the least; nice try though."

"Grr, you're just as bad as BM was about it. I think it took a few years for that knuckle-head to understand it," Dick growled in almost mock frustration.

"Sorry, but some people enjoy not butchering the already butchered mess that is the English language." The girl answered with a light laugh, her hands reaching for the spray and wipes.

Dick laughed with her for a second, before his chest started hurting. He almost raised a hand to cradle his once again aching ribs, but remembered the restraints right before. A huffing grumble of annoyance slipped past his now gritted teeth. Dick tried to focus on the subtle stinging and occasional little pricks of pain as the girl wiped away at the clunkier scab on his arm, putting all effort into ignoring the pain that was seeming to blossom in his chest. Soon the girl was taping and wrapping the right arm before moving to the left. She started in silence before, one again, Dick started up a conversation.

"So, what's your villain gig? I guess it has something to do with cats, right? I mean, the tail is a dead give away." Dick said causally shrugging his shoulders before scrunching his face in slight pain and mentally face-palming as he reminded himself about the injured chest. The protege knew that when he got out, the next couple months were not going to be fun in the slightest.

"Name's Felinis, and yes it has to do with cats. They are mysterious little creatures that can get anywhere and get away with almost anything. They make the ideal thief and that's what I am. Sure, I play with the big boys now but I started out in Bludhaven with Luma as thieves; high quality thieves, but thieves. And we were pretty good too. Got a few really nice scores. The Quraquian quartz wolf last fall, followed by the Zambalyan gem statue earlier this year back in January. Nice scores as I said." Felinis bragged with a smug smile as she applied the paste to Dick's left arm and began to wrapping it with the gauze.

"Guess I'll have something to start looking for while I'm stuck in bed for the next few months after the Team gets me out; 'cause you know that's going to happen right? Not once has a hero being captured ever gone a villain's favor; even if they are as nice as you Felli." Dick stated with confidence.

But as the two were about to continue the conversation the doors whooshed open, showing a mostly black clothed figure in the doorway. He advanced, metal boots sounding louder in the reverberating room. Hands were intertwined behind his back as slow, deliberate steps carried him forward. He stopped several feet from the table, head turning to look directly into Felinis's eyes.

"You said 'cleaning him up' would only take you a minute. It has been over thirty my dear, and now I believe your friend Luma does require your help cleaning up after a little cat fight in the cafeteria; though you may end up cleaning it on your own since you started it and have broken nearly every rule set in place around this young captive," came the dreaded cool, metallic voice.

Shivers ran down Dick's spine as he watched Deathstroke speak to Felinis, or maybe they were just from hearing Deathstroke talk period; Dick thought that the metallic note in his voice was creepier than Wally's taste in exotic foods, which sometimes literally creeped and crawled.

"I don't remember any rules about getting him to relax while I'm holding sharp objects. After that clown's treatment, he'll probably hate sharp blades and crowbars with a vengeance for the rest of his life," Felinis responded, ignoring the threats and refusing to be walked over even by her employer's employer.

It was hard for even Dick to find the minuscule traces of a changing expression in Deathstroke's single eye. The orange-and-black masked villain raised a hand, touching the cold metal on the back of it to Felinis' exposed shoulder before pushing against it.

"I do believe that you have a job to do else where, and I also can assume that you're rather fond of that atrocity you call an appendage sticking out your backside; so if you want to keep either of those things intact, I suggest that you move on, Felinis." There was no amusement or any emotion in the almost robotic tone of voice, only pure calculation and the distinct lisps of a taut smirk tugging at the hidden lips.

She did not make a move to step hastily out of his way, taking a few seconds to mount the tension prior to stepping out of his path. Dick watched as her amber eyes stayed locked with the single visible eye of the mask. Despite her own mask hiding a majority of her features the bound hero could easily tell just how much effort the felinesque villainess was working to keep her tongue in check. He had to bite on his cheek as well to keep from smirking at Deathstroke. The man may have power and a reputation to make the majority of people quake in their capes, but two of the people who were either stupid enough or thought they were good enough to stand up to the ego-maniac were in the room.

As the doors whooshed once more Dick could feel the temperature in the room drop, or was it the sinking feeling of dread that was settling over him? The second burst of air signaled the closing of doors. Both villain and hero watched the doors for a few seconds assuring themselves that no one was going to come bursting through. Dick was not expecting someone to, that would be silly and naive and he was neither of those things. He did half-expect the villain to speak up, and begin a totally not astrous meeting all-too similar to Joker's, not hearing that grating yet discomfortingly familiar voice speak to the air.

"Computer, lock beta cell until I'm finished."

"Code eighty-Z: kappa-tau-etta authorized, beginning lockdown until override sequence pi-omicron-sigma activated."

Another shiver ran through the hero as he recognized the same computerized tone as the Cave's system. A fleeting thought passed through Dick's mind as he wondered how Deathstroke had gotten a hold of that software, it was Wayne tech specific; patented and everything. The thought was, however, chased away when metal clinked against the tiled floor. Then, as Dick was switching his attention to the moving villain, the single, cold eye was turned on Dick, digging full-force into him.

"So, you've got some sort of special voice recognition security system that uses specified lock codes that probably change every hour unless you know the base name for it, right?" Dick asked, curious to learn anything he could about the technological system.

"Quite astute of you Robin; it's Nightwing now isn't it? It's so hard to keep track of you silly birds, changing all the time."

"Kind of happens when certain business associates are on the skyward side of the tracks," Dick snapped before he could stop the words.

An amused chuckle rumbled through the muscled villain as he pulled a stool around from outside of Dick's vision and sat. A terrifying glint seemed to spark to life in the man's chilling eye as he crossed his arms and settled onto the metal seat.

"Clever with words I see, and in more ways than one. I recall 'astrous' being part of your petty word games? And something to do with 'whelmed', correct?"

This time it was Dick who chuckled with amusement, cringing and almost gasping for air afterwards before speaking his reasons.

"Why is it that the second most evil villain is the one who grasps my vocab faster than the good guys or the second-hand lackeys?"

Dick had closed his eyes to attempt holding in his laughter, wanting to avoid the pain it brought; so he did not see Deathstroke approach him with a now, if possible, colder look in that single eye. The movement with which the villain clasped his hand around Dick's suit, and jerked the hero off the table as much as the restraints would allow, was rough, harsh and made an involuntary gasping hiss of pain fly out of Dick's mouth. The boy's dark cerulean eyes were wide with pain and shock as he felt his ribcage alight with a frustrating and blindingly powerful agony. He did not need to see the entirety of Deathstroke's face to tell that the man was seriously not feeling the aster.

"Say something you didn't like, DS?" Dick said through his ragged gasping.

The hand around his suit pulled the hero farther away from the table, causing more strain on the bindings. A harsh shake brought Dick's eyes to focus intently on the smoldering icy eye that was Deathstroke's own. With no warning the villain practically threw Dick against the table, knocking what air that remained from the boy's lungs and possibly causing more damage to the injured ribs. A fierce hand planted itself right beside Dick's left ear, bending as the lead villain lowered his masked face till it was only an inch or two away from the hero's.

"You have got some nerve, boy. You might want to rethink your words when in such a precarious position. A single tap and you could all but shatter to pieces, and not to mention that we have our ways of teaching captives respect, though I assume from your current condition that my associate has already tried. I suspect he was unsuccessful in part to his lack of finesse. I believe that a little test run could be in order. Objection?" The taunting note that lingered in the infuriating metallic baritone was maddening and terrifying as Deathstroke reached behind his back and slowly pulled a blade out, bringing it to rest the tip on the table beside Dick's head, making the protege turn his head to look at the glinting blade not even a centimeter from his skin. With a slow movement the teen brought his eyes back to glaring at Deathstroke, taking his time to show he was not afraid.

The Bat-protege remained still as stone, not flinching as his eyes locked defiantly with Deathstroke's one in a silent, answering battle. Their staring match continued on for seconds before Deathstroke broke the still tension, lifting away with a sudden movement. His knife was replaced in it's sheath. With long steady steps Deathstroke made his way to the door.

"Computer, activate lockdown override code with vocal recognition sequence ."

Clicks and whirs of gears echoed through the metallic walls before the doors slid open, almost grinding into their slots. Dick watched the orange-and-black masked villain pass through the opening, an annoying smugness in his slow step that irked the trapped hero to no end. The doors began to slide close when Deathstroke turned, blue eye glinting in the faint light that reached it as a smirk was surely spreading on his face.

"And let the Joker, and his princess, know they have some time reserved with our little package."

The doors slammed with an air of finality, punctuating the words Dick's mind was scrambling to wrap around. A cold lump caught in the hero's throat before plummeting to his stomach and settling there before freezing over his insides with dread and something too close to fear for his comfort. The now-sprinting beat of his heart went against the desperate battle for control that Dick waged against his thoughts and memories. The freshly bandaged wounds began to ache, faded remembrances of the last few days coming to life again; stinging, burning, tearing pain that spread everywhere.

His eyes squeezed shut, as if trying to keep the memories from seeping in though only allowing them to flash before the darkness. Splitting pain in his sides; dribbling streams of red seeping over torn black material... Dick shook his head violently, dislodging the train of memories before the burning wounds became too revived at the recollections of their past pain. The hero was not unsurprised to find that the brief retreat to memories made his pulse and breathing more erratic than before and though the looming threat ran rampant in his mind, wreaking havoc upon his sensible thoughts, some logic seeped through and the youth began the well-practiced calming routines learned years ago.

Ears trained on the rough sounds of his pained breaths, they did not identify the swoosh and grinding of the doors nor the slapping and clacking of feet on the tiled floor. With eyes closed and focused on the calming blackness Dick remained unaware of the two people approaching, one with a sickly green mop-like style of hair and the other with a strange black and red hat, waving with her steps. Quiet snickers echoed, varying degrees of sanity detectable by any who payed heed to the sounds.

The two figures stopped at the side of the table, a pair of toxic green eyes gleaming with hardly suppressed glee. The silver bells jingled as the hat's wearer tilted her head, observing the boy who seemed to be asleep. She reached hand out to poke him in the ribs, prodding harshly on a bandaged spot. Both grins widened when blue eyes snapped open and the tied-up hero jerked roughly against the restraints, fresh panic and pain glazing over the normally stoic features before being replaced with an obviously fake calm expression. His chest rising and falling unsteadily only solidified the wicked smiles on the villains' faces.

"Morning sunshine, did you do the homework we talked about?" Joker asked, his smile twitching and growing as if he couldn't contain all of his excitement and sadistic happiness in the already terrifyingly immense grin.

Dick's mind was scrambling once again, trying to regain composure, as he attempted remembering what Joker was talking about and futilely striving to ignore the almost-morbid glee in the two pairs of eyes staring at him. The slowed breaths he had fought for were once again swift and shallow, panic growing as the flashes of memories were not the ones he wanted to see, nor pleasant ones in the least.

The trained teen refrained from tugging at the bindings or squirming away as a gloved hand reached towards his face, gripping his cheeks and forcing his head to turn and gluing his eyes to the sickeningly toxic green ones. For a split second fear welled up in the dark blue eyes before being hidden beneath a layer of defiance, though a shaky one; almost blown away by the laughter splitting the air.

"I don't t'ink 'e did it, Mr. J," that irritatingly sharp voice giggled, practically making Dick wince at the tone and octave.

"What should we do, muffin? The poor lad's obviously been having some difficulty completing our assignments. Maybe he just needs some better material."

Dick did not dare move a muscle, nor could he. The panic and fear he had been fighting both stopped and surged at the same time, rendering his muscles and mind useless. Without understanding the Joker's conversation there was no chance at preparation, no chance for protection and without protection there was no chance of surviving unscathed inside. The widening smile of those horrific red lips and flicking glance of the almost-hypnotizing green eyes were the only warnings before a sudden pain exploded in his chest. The air was forced out of his lungs, splitting cracks echoed and a sharp laughter began.

His eyes squeezed shut only for a second as the hero refocused, or tried to, on breathing; not the pain in his chest that had just intensified; not the crazies around him going more insane by the second; only on breathing. But that second was enough for Harley to jab a finger harshly into his side again, inciting another groan of pain from the captive. His eyes flashed open, murderously glaring daggers at her.

"No sleepin' in class, mister," she chided obnoxiously.

"Do we need to force your eyes open, or maybe the world's to who you really are. It seems our hero is without his symbol. Pity, the world won't see him as a hero unless he has it. Should we give him his symbol, muffin-cake?" That false-dubious voice irked and terrified Dick to no end as the clown pondered tortures.

"I t'ink so, Mr. J. You want Harley to grab ya' your new knife?"

The overly exaggerated nod sent Harley scrambling out of Dick's field of vision. The noises of clattering metal and excited squeals as rushed clacking of shoes made a new wave of dread wash over the teen. The Joker's assistant came back into view, a familiar looking dark gray ellipsoid shape in her hands. It was swiftly passed to the Joker, who's eyes lit up with a crazed gleam. The change of hands allowed Dick a new perspective on the shape, noticing the all-too-familiar design of the hidden button in the flat surface. The little bit of color that had seeped to Dick's face dissipated as the Joker ginned cruelly and pressed the small indentation.

Fast as the eye could blink the ellipsoid expanded into a bladed object, glinting in the light. Dick focused on the blades, searching for any sign that what was in Joker's hands was anything but what he suspected; to the hero's dismay the finely etched design along the polished metal and overall design was too similar for it to be anything else. That irritating fact sent words building in his throat before he could process or stop them.

"Can you villains get any more creative than using our stuff? I mean come on it's totally underwhelming if you're using our weapons on us, we already know what it does. You guys seriously need to work on your approaches to creating fe- Ahhh!" The scathing rant was cut off by his scream as the fine blade began to bury itself in his flesh, digging through the bandages and scabs to hit the cracked and broken bones in his chest.

White-hot pain stemmed from the deep enough incision and traveled along the cracked, broken and fractured ribs, making tears well-up in his eyes and forcing grunts and almost-shouts of pure agony from his lips.

As the initial pain and shock began to ebb in the slightest Dick tried to relax into it, attempting to let the pain flow through him and run it's course as he would in any other situation; only to be ripped back to the reality of harsh new pain. His mouth flew open, almost unhinging as a raw screech broke to life. His mind vaguely wondered if that was him screaming, thinking that the sounds were too raw and pure to belong to the First Protege of Batman, youngest protege ever to have lived and yet the most experienced. His eyes were shut as the teen tried to curb the sounds, only managing to stifle them in the slightest by shutting his mouth. When cerulean eyes opened they were greeted by a sight most would have fainted at; a blood covered weapon in the hands of certifiable maniac and his little court jester assistant at his side.

"No talking during class, Junior. Get the point?" Joker chuckled as he swiped a finger over the bloody blade.

A grimace passed over Dick's face as he decided against rolling his eyes at the "joke". _That's something Walls would come up with._ A barely smile flitted over his face as he pictured Wally evil and saying something like that. His moment of peace was interrupted by a swift, and ever painful, jab to the ribs.

"You t'ink ignorin' your teacher's'll get you out of the class?" The annoying voice asked.

He bit his tongue hard to avoid letting the semi-coherent babble that was about to spring forward out. His once-again defiant and strengthened gaze lifted to meet the toxic eyes of the Joker, and he couldn't keep the air of strength up as those poisonous eyes burned it away. A mad cackle burst to life, sending shivers down Dick's spine as he watched the clown shake and contort; a hacking sound almost seeming to seep into the laughs, though it was hard to tell.

"Let's get class started, we're late as it is." Waves of excitement and sadistic joy radiated from the crazed clown as he bent over Dick's chest, birdarang at the ready.

The hero tensed and almost closed his eyes as he watched the sharpened weapon descend onto his skin, though the jabs to the chest from Harley far out-weighed not watching his own creation used against him. With agonizing slowness the Joker cut each layer of bandages that wrapped his torso, careful to only slice one layer at a time as his eyes revealed a bizarre child-like wonder and joy at the act.

Annoyance was building as Dick watched him pick away at the layers, and knowing there were still a fair few before reaching skin the teen looked away. His eyes had the brief chance to wander and lock with Harley's. Brows knitted together as blue met blue-ringed-with-pink. As thoughts began to form sudden, excruciating pain burst to life in his chest. The burning wasn't the spread out, sudden crack and then gradual numbness of bones but the sizzling agony springing forth from sliced skin. As another scream tore from his throat Dick felt wetness creep down his chest, slithering over the bruises and feeling warm against the marked and scarred skin. Then the pain intensified, as did the ear-pounding screech, when the keen-edged blade was drug across the pale torso, tearing smoothly through the skin; sending continuous torrents of mind-shattering pain through out the hero's tensed upper body, the agony beginning to cloud his mind.

A new sharpness of pain ripped through the skin as the metal was removed, pulling a different kind of screech with it. In the brief respite a single thought resonated clear in his head. Get away. In panicked, desperate movements the boy pulled and yanked at the restraints, putting the entirety of his body into attempting to break away. Sweat was littering his skin from panic and the pain of before, now joined by the stress-sweat and began dribbling into the open wound. Groans echoed as the already aching and burning wounds began to prickle and sting due to the salt, almost drawing the prickling of tears to the hero's eyes.

In the moments of pain-free pain-numbed fog Dick began the time-old mantra of "_Don't you dare cry. I swear to the high heavens if you start crying, Grayson, you're going to be in deep trouble." _A sudden fire erupted across his chest again, a new line starting to be blazed across the pale, marred surface. The metal almost felt as if it were sizzling as it plowed agonizingly slow through the skin and muscle, ever so careful to just barely hover over the bone. Near immeasurable pain flared across the excruciating cuts as a precise wrenching slice tore through the fragile material, turning a corner for a continuous line.

Caterwauls of pain still rang in the air, growing hoarser and sounding rawer by the second. Sweat and blood pooled onto the table, mostly the dark liquid, before slipping down; seeping between Dick and the table, running into the bandages and soaking into them. The warm liquid drew Dick's focus as his mind surrendered to the pain and adapted to it. His chest still felt as if the home to a thousand fires and burned with agony; his throat was still clenched in a seemingly never ending cry of pain, blood beginning to well up in the back from being shouted raw; however, the pain was so great it numbed the boy's mind.

Dick smirked inwardly, a sense of peace flooding him as all the pain blended together. Another sharp twist of the blade sent a mild increase in the pain, almost forcing the boy out of his cloud, but not quite; though tearing a spiked shriek from the teen.

As he felt blood continuing to rush down the table Dick's world started to spin, slowly though noticeably, and a small, persistent pain budded in his forehead making him unable to focus on anything. Colors blended together.

A third sharp twist, wrenching a third spiked wail.

A quick glance down to his chest while hidden in the protective fog caused bile to rise in the young hero's throat. He had seen blood, he had seen people in pain and he had experienced pain; but looking at your own chest, already marred with years worth of scars, soaked in one's own blood and watching the knife, your own weapon, slice through your flesh was something Dick had never thought he would ever see. Disoriented cerulean eyes flicked around the room, searching for anything that he could focus on and not think of the blood.

A fourth spiking scream at a sudden turn ripping through the flesh.

Nothing stood out enough to capture the shaky attention of the hero, who was trying so desperately hard to fight the pain while staying safe within his numbing fog-like state of mind. But the spiraling lights and fuzziness of the world made it all too hard to retain any focus. Faint blackness began creeping over his vision; his eyes stayed closed longer with each blink, struggling to open again and then only opening half-way. The once skull-shattering pain was nearly nonexistent as Dick felt everything slip away, just as the red tears his wounds wept slid down his scar-bumpy skin then the table and then across the tiled floor.

The piercing cackles and whooping laughter that rang in the room only served as lullabies as Dick took a last few struggling breaths, a final ditch attempt at forgoing the creeping darkness. His hopes fell flat as a fifth twist of the blade sent a particularly power jolt of sizzling pain boiling through his chest, causing the blackness to swarm over his eyes and senses; sealing him off and enveloping him in the sweet embrace that would be his relief from the pain.

His howls of pain cut off as the boy's entire body went limp. Eyes closed, form relaxed and motionless except for the blood that poured forth from the wounds. No sounds echoed, save the slow dripping of blood, drop by drop, off of a hand dangling over the side of the bed, sending the blood pooling beneath it. Toxic green met purple-blue as fear swam between them.

Maybe they had had too much fun...


End file.
